Raffles Institution

Raffles Institution (RI) is an independent educational institution in Singapore. Founded in 1823, it is one of the oldest schools in the country. It provides secondary education for boys only from Year 1 to Year 4, and pre-university education for both boys and girls in Year 5 and Year 6. Since 2007, RI and its affiliated school Raffles Girls' School have been offering the six-year Raffles Programme, which allows students to skip the Singapore-Cambridge GCE O-Level examinations and proceed to take the Singapore-Cambridge GCE A-Level examinations at the end of Year 6. RI is notable for having produced 96 President's Scholars, three presidents, four prime ministers and chief ministers, four deputy prime ministers, four speakers of Parliament, many Cabinet ministers and Members of Parliament, as well as many chief executive officers of statutory boards, agencies and state-owned companies. Its alumni includes former Prime Ministers Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong, former Chief Ministers David Marshall and Lim Yew Hock as well as former Presidents Yusof Ishak, Benjamin Sheares and Wee Kim Wee. Robert Kuok, Southeast Asia's wealthiest man at the turn of the 21st century, is also an alumnus. RI has one of the highest admission rates to top universities such as the Ivy League and Oxbridge. It had the highest number of admissions to the University of Cambridge in the world, with 48 students receiving offers in the 2022 admissions cycle, while 52 were accepted for Oxford and Cambridge combined in 2021, and 77 in 2022 (2nd highest of all schools globally). RI is a member of various academic partnerships and alliances, such as the G30 Schools and Winchester Network. It also co-founded the Global Alliance of Leading-Edge Schools.