It was merged into the Nanyang Polytechnic to become part of the School of Engineering. The French-Singapore Institute was established in 1983, in cooperation between the Singapore and French Governments for cultural, scientific and technical relations. It was initially founded as French-Singapore Institute of Electrotechnology. It was also referred to in French as l'Institut franco-singapourien.
At the time, to build a knowledge- and capital-intensive economy with a highly educated and flexible workforce, the Singapore government, under the direction of the Economic Development Board, developed a polytechnic sector and established institutions of technology in collaboration with foreign governments. The Japan-Singapore Institute (JSI), German-Singapore Institute (GSI) and the French-Singapore Institute trained Singaporeans for specialised jobs in electronics and engineering. The JSI was established to advance information technology training, the GSI to train technologists for the manufacturing industry and the FSI to train technicians in the electronics industry. Providing initial and further training in the fields of electrical and electronic engineering with emphasis on industrial electronics, factory automation and industrial computing, it was organised under auspices of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) with support of the École Supérieure d'Ingénieurs en Électronique et Électrotechnique (ESIEE), a "grande écoles" of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris (CCIP) and . It was a distinct project in order to guarantee its originality within the Singapore technical training system. The FSI served various French interests:
- helped French companies who wanted to establish co-operation links with Singaporean industrial partners in their areas of activities.
- acted as a showcase for French technology
- supported French companies wishing to set up in Singapore; as a priority the graduates of the Institute were deployed to French companies established in Singapore, who would provide them with jobs relevant to their training. Technical French was a required subject, taught as part of the curriculum. In 1992, it was announced that the FSI, along with other EDB institutes, was transferred from the EDB to the then newly-established Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) to become the School of Engineering, and remained at the Science Centre Road premises until 1998 when the new NYP campus in Ang Mo Kio was ready. (The 12 Science Centre Road compound has since been used as school premises by Pioneer Junior College 1999-2002, and until recently, Informatics Education)
