From professor to donor: A family’s gift to NTU students

Dr James C M Loh believes that donating to a cause should not be limited to the very wealthy. Over the years, that belief has shaped not only his own giving, but also a shared commitment within his family to helping others.

Last year, together with his son, Dr Andrew Loh, and daughter-in-law, Dr Jacqueline Neo, he established the Loh Family Bursary at NTU to support financially needy Singaporean undergraduates at Nanyang Business School (NBS) in perpetuity.

Dr James Loh with his son, Dr Andrew Loh (right), and daughter-in-law, Dr Jacqueline Neo (left). (Photo: Dr James Loh)

A humble beginning

Dr Loh was born in a village in Ipoh, Malaysia, and was raised by a single mother. He turned down a Mombusho Scholarship from the Japanese government because his mother was reluctant to let him go so far away. He took a loan to study for a Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons) degree at the then University of Singapore instead.

Asked about his career, he said matter-of-factly that he had “an okay career, nothing great”. He added, “I was never a big-time CEO earning millions of dollars or even hundreds of thousands a year.”

He started working as a lecturer in Malaysia before migrating to Singapore in 1969, where he served as an Administrative Officer in the civil service for nearly eight years in what he said with a smile, was his “non-uniformed national service.”

He then worked in the private sector, mainly in sales, marketing and consulting, before joining the non-profit sector and became the founding Executive Director of the Marketing Institute of Singapore, where he spearheaded the birth of distance-learning degree programmes in Singapore, and helped to do the same in Malaysia and Hong Kong. He concluded his career as the first Adjunct Associate Professor of Marketing at NTU’s NBS, bringing his professional journey a full circle.

Since retiring in 2000, he has remained active as an education adviser. The job, which he calls a “paying hobby”, entails helping school leavers get into top universities and highly competitive courses such as medicine, dentistry, veterinary science and law.

Why he gives

Dr Loh’s giving philosophy is shaped by two personal beliefs: that helping others should not be limited to the very wealthy, and that parents need not leave everything they have to their children. “After setting aside what I will need for the rest of my life, I have decided to give a portion of whatever is left, to help the less fortunate rather than giving it all to my only son,” he said. “I have already given him the capability to earn for himself, and whatever I leave him is a bonus.”

Dr Loh started giving in the late 1980s, paying the O-Level exam fees for needy students in a leading girls’ school, and later, supporting various charities. In 2017, he established a student loan fund at his alma mater, now the National University of Singapore’s School of Business.

He wanted to do something for NBS, but it took a while to save up for it. Last year, during a conversation with officers from NTU’s University Advancement Office, he learned that an endowment could be built up progressively instead of through a single lump-sum gift. That immediately strengthened his resolve to establish the Loh Family Bursary. Dr Loh believes that greater awareness of the flexibility of setting up a fund, together with the available tax benefits, could encourage more people to consider giving.

When giving becomes a family project

Knowing that his son could contribute at this stage of his life, Dr Loh spoke to him about establishing the Bursary at NTU. “The earlier he starts giving, the more he can give in his lifetime,” he quipped.

The younger Dr Loh, who previously worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at NTU before becoming a Chartered Patent Attorney at Spruson and Ferguson, readily agreed. “As a post-doctoral researcher at NTU, I have benefited from the University’s support and resources,” he said. “That experience convinced me that education is not just about individual achievement, but also about collective actions and joint progress.”

He then invited his wife, Dr Jacqueline Neo, to join the effort. Her own academic path had been supported by two scholarships: the Defence Science and Technology Agency Overseas Scholarship, which took her to University College London (UCL) and Cambridge, and the Clarendon Fund Scholarship at Oxford. “Those awards enabled me to focus fully on my studies and later my research. What I remember most was the confidence these scholarships gave me,” said Dr Neo. “Knowing that someone believed in my potential was very empowering.” She hopes that the Loh Family Bursary will give its recipients the same boost of confidence.

NBS Deputy Dean, Professor Sharon Ng, was pleasantly surprised when told that Dr Loh and his family are the donors of this endowed Bursary. She said: “Dr Loh was my marketing professor when I was an undergraduate, and it was he who inspired me to become a marketing professor. As NBS's Deputy Dean, I am especially glad that he is once again going to have an impact on our students; this time, instead of teaching, through his family's generous financial gift. I am optimistic that some of our students will be inspired by his example to give back to NBS just like he has done.”

Prof Sharon expressed her appreciation and gratitude to Dr Loh and his family on behalf of NBS. She said that in choosing to give as a family, the Lohs are showing that giving need not only be the effort of an individual but can also be a collective effort involving other members of the family. Prof Sharon added: “In setting up an endowed bursary, the Loh Family is supporting today's and generations of NBS students to come.