Although NTU occupies the grounds of the former Nanyang University (NU), and has a similar name, it is not a direct continuation of that institution.

[8][better source needed] In 2003, this idea received further support from NTU president Su Guaning, during an interview with the Chinese-language paper Lianhe Zaobao.

One reason offered for the renaming was that, by the mid-2000s, NTU no longer had a narrow focus on technical subjects, but had become a full university including studies in the humanities.

[9][10] Nanyang Technological Institute (NTI) was set up on 1 August 1981 with a charter to train three-quarters of Singapore's engineers.

In 1991, NTI merged with the National Institute of Education (NIE) (founded in 1950) to form the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

The Coat of Arms consists of a heraldic shield divided into two sections: the lower portion shows a stalking lion facing the spectator on a white background and the upper portion two atomic symbols, one on either side of a cog-wheel above a battlement on a red background.

NTU has been listed as one of the World's Most Beautiful Universities, featuring the ADM building in the report.

[24] During NTI period between 1981 and 1982, the main campus layout including the building complex, the so-called North Spine, has been designed by Kenzō Tange,[25] world-renowned Japanese architect and 1987 winner of the Pritzker Prize.

[26] The ADM building, featured in "Travel + Lesiure" report,[23] has been designed by a young Singaporean architect Lee Cheng Wee.

The campus grounds were originally donated by the Singapore Hokkien Association to Nanyang University.

With the formation of the NTU through NTI's merger with the National Institute of Education (NIE), the grounds were then presented to the university.

The former Nanyang University administration building was restored into the Chinese Heritage Centre and was gazetted as a national monument in 1998 – now overlooking the Yunnan Garden.

[30] A third campus, Novena Campus, is situated close to LKCMedicine's partner teaching hospital, Tan Tock Seng Hospital in downtown Novena for medical teaching and research at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.

NBS has more than 160 professors from more than 20 countries, proficient in 30 languages holding doctorates from the most renowned universities in the world.

[39][40] NBS also houses the 165-square meter Centre for Applied Financial Education, the largest finance lab in Singapore.

The new lab is equipped with 60 dedicated Thomson Reuters Eikon terminals with Datastream, along with 24 Bloomberg terminals that will allow business school students to access all kinds of real-time financial, economic and business news information.

The college offers a rich array of multidisciplinary programmes and specialisations in traditional engineering disciplines and beyond.

[46] In February 2024, a restructuring occurred within the academic framework, resulting in the separation of the disciplines of Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Data Science, and Artificial Intelligence from the College of Engineering, establishing them as an autonomous college.

This transition was marked by the introduction of new program offerings, including Applied Computing in Finance and Artificial Intelligence & Society.

In 2010, NTU announced the formation of a pro-tem governing board to guide the establishment of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, a collaboration with Imperial College London.

[54] The National Institute of Education (NIE), occupying 16 hectares (0.16 km2; 40 acres) in the western part of NTU's Yunnan Garden campus, is Singapore's main teaching college and is run in close collaboration with Singapore's Ministry of Education.

The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), named after Singapore's former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, offers graduate programmes in international relations and is an autonomous graduate institution of NTU.

[57][58] Many students also take part in sports, recreational games and performing arts activities within the residential hall communities.

The Union operates through two main bodies: the NTUSU Council, which drafts and oversees policies, and the executive committee, which plans and implements them.

[62] The Varsity Sports Association (VSA) is a student body consisting of athletes representing NTU in major university games.

[70] NTU is #1 in both the Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2023 and the QS "Top 50 Under 50" 2021.