Welcome
The Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT) invites all who are involved with higher education in Singapore to the Higher Education Conference in Singapore (HECS) 2025. HECS 2025 will take place on 10 December 2025 (Wednesday) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) University Town (UTown) Town Plaza.
The HECS 2025 Conference Chairs warmly welcome colleagues to the conference.
Theme
This year’s conference will centre on the theme, “Building Relationships in Teaching and Learning”. This conference would like to invite educators and education scholars to relook at the various kinds of relationships that underlie effective learning; or the kind of relationships that are built during the process of learning or as a result of learning. In the face of a tech-heavy teaching and learning environment, a focus on the interpersonal and the intersubjective can be a way to integrate the technological and the human in teaching and learning.
Sub-Themes
We invite extended abstracts on the following sub-themes. For illustration purpose, we listed a few non-exhaustive examples under each sub-theme.
Building Learning Relationships
- Learner to/with learner (eg. peer learning, student team dynamic etc)
- Educator to/with learner (eg. coaching, course co-creation etc)
Building Technological and Community Relationships
- Between learner and environment (eg. Technology, community, society etc)
- Between educator and environment (eg. Technology, community, society etc)
Building Professional Relationships
- Between educators (eg. mentorship, sharing of ideas etc)
- Between teaching practices
Others
- For abstracts that do not fall into any of the three sub-themes.
- Note that we are open to other papers but will prioritise papers that align with the conference theme.
Extended abstracts may cover more than one of the sub-themes.
HECS 2025 Keynote
The Challenges and Hopes of a Relationship-Rich Education: Restoring the Human in Teaching and Learning

A/P Chng Huang Hoon
Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre
A memorable and impactful learning experience is not defined by useful content or good pedagogical skills alone but by the meaningful relationships that may be formed between educators and learners. This should not be something we even have to discuss but unfortunately, in today’s high-speed, time-hungry world, an educational experience that is marked by the strong bonds between learners and educators have become somewhat challenging to achieve. It is time to place the educator-learner bond at the centre of any teaching and learning endeavour.
Through narratives gathered from educators and learners, I hope to illuminate on the conference theme of building relationships in teaching and learning. A key message I wish to convey is: high-impact experiences have to be founded on relationships; on community bonds; and on mutual trust. If we can enact an educational experience that is relationship-rich in- and outside our classrooms, we would have gone some ways in restoring the human in the work we do.
Signature Pedagogy Session
The Signature and Innovative Pedagogy Workshop
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AUs |
Workshop Title |
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SIT |
Empowering Student Success: An Introduction to Solution-Focused Coaching in Higher Education |
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SUTD |
Hands-on, interdisciplinary and human centric design thinking |
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SMU, SUSS, NTU |
Details being refined |
Playful Minds: Learning Through Play
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Synopsis |
Facilitators |
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Research shows that play can foster relational safety, create a conducive classroom environment, lower barriers to learning, and enhance students’ positive affect and motivation. This hands-on installation showcases how play can be integrated into higher education as part of rigorous, outcome-aligned pedagogy. Learn about and try a range of playful approaches, including: role playing and theatre games to encourage reflection, perspective-taking, and ethical reasoning; board games and card games to simulate complex phenomena; and puzzles and scavenger hunts to connect the classroom to the real world.
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Call for Submissions
CTLT invites you to submit your extended abstracts, on the conference theme and sub-theme, to be considered for inclusion in the conference programme.
NEW! Submission Deadline Extended!
Due to overwhelming responses, we have extended the closing date until 30th June 2025, so that more colleagues can submit their work.
The submission portal will close on 30 June 2025 (Monday) at 11.59 pm (2359).
Presentation Formats
Three formats are available for you to present your work:
- Paper Presentation – 10-minute talk with 10-minute question-and-answer
- Lightning Talk – 5-minute talk with 5-minute question-and-answer
- Poster Presentation
Please indicate your preferred presentation format in the submission portal
Extended Abstract Template
One common template is used for all the three presentation formats. Please download and use the extended abstract template for your submissions.
Please contact the HECS 2025 Conference Secretariat at hecssec@nus.edu.sg for conference-related queries.

