Singapore's fourth university will be named the Singapore University of Technology and Design.

Known as SU for short, it will open in 2011 to take in a maximum of 500 undergraduates.

This will be gradually increased to a maximum intake of 4,000 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Education said the former engineering dean at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Professor Thomas Magnanti, will be SU's president.

During his three-year appointment - which begins on Oct 1, 2009 - the Institute Professor will be on leave from MIT and will "devote his time fully to SU", the spokesman said.

As the university's name implies, its programmes will be design-focused.

They will initially be based on four pillars leading to separate degree programmes. They are tentatively named:

1) Architecture and Sustainable Design;

2) Engineering Product Design;

3) Engineering Systems and System Design and;

4) Information Engineering and Design.

The spokesman said SU could also do away with traditional academic departments to support the inter-disciplinary nature of its programmes.

It is currently looking at organising the university according to technology and science clusters to encourage collaborations.

The SU is set to collaborate with other top universities too, if all things go well.

Discussions are on-going for a team of experienced MIT professors to oversee SU's curriculum development.

There could also be "a steady exchange of faculty between the two universities participating in research and education activities on both campuses."

MOE also added that the SU is in talks with a top Chinese university on possible collaborations.