SPEECH BY MR ONG YE KUNG, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND COORDINATING MINISTER FOR SOCIAL POLICIES, AT THE SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GERONPRENEURSHIP INNOVATION FESTIVAL, 26 AUGUST 2026

Mrs Mildred Tan, Chairman of SUSS 

Professor Tan Tai Yong, President of SUSS  

Mr Chia Chor Meng, President of Ngee Ann Kongsi 

Distinguished guests 

Ladies and gentlemen 

1.      I'm very pleased to join you this morning at the GIF 2026.  

2.      Tai Yong started talking about health, so let me start and reciprocate by talking about the university. It’s for a good reason, because in 2017, this is when UniSIM, the private university, was restructured into Singapore's sixth Autonomous University (AU) and renamed SUSS, and it's a special moment because I was then Minister for Education. It will appear not many people know that. But starting a new AU, that's a very major policy move, and Government decided to do so only when it was convinced that SUSS has something very distinct, something very unique to offer. So, there are two very unique things about SUSS.

3.      The first is its distinct mission, which was social development to nurture people who contribute to social causes, social services, and social good. And this is how SUSS got its name, with social sciences at the end. There were other suggestions. One was City University - I didn't like that. I said City University, what does that mean? Singapore, the whole country is a city, you know? But as it turns out, you are going to move to the CBD.  

4.      The second distinctive characteristic was that SUSS would carry on the tradition that UniSIM had set up, which is to serve adult learners. And this was important because the old paradigm was that life is compartmentalised into phases. There is one phase where you study and got educated. There is another phase you work, and then last phase, you retire. And that has become obsolete. We needed to now intersperse learning and working. So, you learn, you work, you come back, you learn and work again, even into retirement. And we should apply this process also to acquiring a university degree. So, today, the bulk of SUSS students are part-time graduates. I understand 4,000 of the intake are part-time, 1,000 of the intake are full-time, and these 4,000 part-time students have a tough job, juggling between family, work, as well as education.  

5.      So, catering to the education needs of adult learners is importantly not about delivering a traditional undergrad degree of office hours. That has also been an old paradigm. Actually, the whole andragogy, the whole curriculum has to change, more work centric, more practical, building on the skills and knowledge that adult learners have already acquired through life and work experience, and hence the Institute of Adult Learning, the IAL, was transferred from SkillsFuture Singapore to SUSS, and actually is a very strategic implant into SUSS.  

6.      And since then, we know SUSS has grown significantly, both in terms of enrolment, and also in terms of your course offering. So, I'm very happy to now know you offer gerontology, social work, community development, human development, early childhood education, and counselling, and maybe more to come. I look forward to celebrating SUSS’ 10th anniversary next year.  

7.      I said all that because now that we are in an Innovation Festival like this, I think SUSS’ Innovation Festival must be different from the other AUs because of the distinct characteristics that SUSS has. So, your expectations are higher. Your innovations need to address real life social challenges, such as seniors living alone in the community that need to stay socially engaged; caregivers undergoing a lot of stress and they need support and respite; mental health as a rising concern, and we need better ways to manage and treat it while it is not severe, especially amongst the young; childhood becoming more challenging, especially with the influence of screen time and social media, and how to help wean young people off that into more active lifestyles. The ideas and prototypes developed by practitioners and adult learners have to be more practical, in tune with the real-life challenges.  

8.      SUSS has already been building this ecosystem since 2022 through your Venture Builder programme under the Ngee Ann Kongsi Social Impact Hub. It recognises that for good, effective, and practical solutions to emerge, we need academia-industry collaboration, and entrepreneurship. And since then, you have supported 288 full-time, part-time, postgrad, and adult learners who receive seed funding, S$25,000 to S$50,000, to kick-start their ventures. And today, you have created 242 impact ventures, translating your social purpose into practical ventures.  

9.      And with your focus of geronpreneurship, I learned a new word today, the festival today showcases many practical social development projects: 

10.      And one example is an AI-powered WhatsApp Companion developed by Marymount Labs, whose founders are SUSS adult learners and student entrepreneurs. And this is in partnership with Tzu-Chi Foundation, which is a very active partner on the ground, and they also run Active Ageing Centres (AACs). So, when Tzu-Chi run AACs, actually all AACs have the same challenge, which is how do we encourage more seniors living in the vicinity to take part in our activities? So the WhatsApp Companion attempts to do this by providing personalised health check-ins, activity recommendations, gentle nudges to seniors, and in rolling out the solutions, I'm glad to learn that the team work with the social partners, understand the ground, design the app accordingly, and I hope that it will produce its intended impact, and hopefully can scale up to other AACs.  

11.      Another example is Sentinan, which started as a technology project involving an AI digital stethoscope, and I don't know what happened, now it has become an AI-enabled tool to support earlier detection of heart risk from stethoscope to an early heart risk detector. It is developed by SUSS adult learners, Dr Ho Chin Keong, former technology lead at A*STAR, Mr Ray Chan, a former nurse manager and oncology specialist, and Sentinan has served about 300 seniors across AACs.  

12.      Meaningful innovation does not happen by chance. It happens when people understand real need, work with the community, test ideas in real life environments, and then iterate the improvements. And we need an effective convergence of technology and real-life implementation.  

13.      But the theme of today's festival is purpose in retirement, purpose in old age. And how do we keep ourselves active, healthy in old age? I tell you what is the biggest challenge and obstacle. It’s actually our internal inertia, our own excuses. There are many people very motivated now to stay healthy, and I'm so happy to see so many of them, especially in the AACs.  

14.      But I also know many many people, including friends of my age or younger than me, with all kinds of reasons. Actually, it's excuses, we call a spade a spade. Why they shouldn't be healthier? And smokers will say, "Aiya, what's the difference? I already smoked for 20 years. What's another cigarette?” People who don't exercise say, "No time, no time. What for?” Keeping healthy is no different from teaching a child about delayed gratification. When a child has S$1 and wants to buy sweets immediately, we say, “Ah boy, ah girl, how about saving it up? One day when you have S$50, you can buy a toy that you really like, as opposed to eating so many sweets.” And we teach our children that all the time, to study and at year end, you'll do better. Your education will be better. It will all accumulate someday into a better life. We teach children that all the time. Well, many of us don't practice that. What's another cigarette? What's another unhealthy drink? What's another unhealthy food? What's another day of lying around not doing anything? But actually, we just need to overcome that inertia, and I think this is where innovation can help overcome inertia.  

15.      And I see very effective solutions these days because I'm not there, doctors are not there to nag you all the time, but my handphone can nag me, and the app can nag me, and I think people have come out with really innovative solutions to nudge people using gamification, so that we can overcome our inertia, turn what we think is no fun to do into something fun to do, and we want to do it.  

16.      But most importantly, whatever it is, whatever little sacrifice, little better habits that we need to pick up, to have a better life in future, we need to think that it is an investment.  

17.      So, someday, 10 years down the road, 20 years down the road, I can lead a purposeful life even when I age, and that is the payback at that time. It is what we teach our children. It is what we should teach ourselves too.  

18.      So, on that note, I wish you all the best for the Innovation Festival. Thank you.