The College was formed in 2006, bringing together three Schools:

	the School of Art, Design and Media, Singapore’s first professional art school to offer degree programmes in art, design and interactive digital media;
	the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Asia’s top school in mass communication; and
	the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, an energetic school offering a stimulating and multidisciplinary education in the humanities and social sciences.

Today, the three Schools are home to some 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students. To put the number in perspective, when the School of Humanities and Social Sciences started operation in 2004, it admitted 53 students.

In December 2009, the College welcomed into its fold the Nanyang Centre for Public Administration (NCPA), which houses the Master in Public Administration and Master of Managerial Economics programmes-dubbed the "Mayors' Class" by the media-designed for senior Chinese government officials. This is a strategic Centre for us, especially as the College will be centrally involved in the development of the "New Silk Road" Peak of Excellence, which has an initial focus on China.

In April 2010, the Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) was reconstituted as the College research hub, with a new Steering Committee comprising members from all the three Schools, tasked with not only promoting and supporting research activities, especially interdisciplinary research in the College, but also providing assistance to colleagues in grant applications and developing proper performance indicators for research in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

Over the years, the College has strived to strengthen governance, enhance interdisciplinary learning and scholarship. We have developed different disciplinary foci while staying united in offering broad-based education aimed at cultivating intellectual openness, rigor and integrity, creativity and innovation, and a deep commitment to social responsibility.

The key concepts that underpin the College are diversity and an interdisciplinary focus. Students have the opportunity to work both within and beyond their primary discipline, and at the exciting fringes of where disciplines meet, whether in film, public policy, theatre and technology, digital imaging and storytelling, linguistics and voice-recognition, literature and psychoanalysis, or journalism and sociological and economy theory.

The complex and exciting inter-disciplinary relationships, as well as the high-calibre teaching and research within the specific disciplines translate into individual growth possibilities for students on the undergraduate programmes. Students will be intellectually prepared for the creative challenges of a fast-paced, high-tech global economy. The College is committed to offering a stimulating education in the humanities, social sciences, art, design and communication studies in which diversity, commitment, and the spirit of intellectual adventure is nourished and encouraged.