It’s not something you’d typically expect as you walk into your university for a seminar or to conduct a class: a three-generation family posing in front of one of the campus buildings, while another family member crouches down with an outstretched mobile phone to snap a picture.

The phenomenon of international visitors on Singapore campuses was in the headlines recently but actually, tourist interest in our universities, at least the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), has always been there.