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The National University of Singapore (NUS) has mandated that all full-time, non-academic staff work on campus five days a week, ending the hybrid arrangements that had allowed employees to work from home on certain days.

The move marks a shift from a model introduced in late 2023, when?NUS moved to a four days in office,?one day remote schedule. Prior to 2023, staff had been able to work from home for two days a week.

According to an NUS spokesperson, staff in ¡°central administration units¡± had resumed five-day office working from 1 September.

The policy was extended to ¡°the rest of the university¡±?from 1 October. NUS said the rule does not apply to faculty.

The spokesperson said the decision had been guided in part by national labour trends.

Citing Ministry of Manpower data, the university noted that close to 70 per cent of companies in Singapore did not offer formal scheduled remote working arrangements in 2023.

¡°NUS too recognises the value of in-person interactions in the workplace,¡±?adding that the university ¡°still offers flexible work arrangements, which can be designed for specific job roles¡±.

NUS employs about 12,000 staff. Its decision comes as companies in Singapore and other countries globally scale back on remote working.

In the UK, a recent?̽»¨ÊÓƵ survey?found that most institutions have retained a hybrid approach, although there was a trend towards increasing the number of office days, particularly for professional services staff.

The University of Liverpool faced strikes earlier this year when it attempted to increase office days from two to three, eventually backing down on the decision in the face of staff pressure.

Among Singapore¡¯s other autonomous universities,?four have indicated that they have no plans to change their current work-from-home arrangements, according to

Nanyang Technological University allows one day of remote work a week, while Singapore Management University, Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore University of Social Sciences and Singapore University of Technology and Design permit two.

The government has also moved to formalise flexible work expectations.

In April 2024, Singapore introduced the Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests, which set out how employees can make requests and how employers should consider them.

tash.mosheim@timeshighereducation.com