The city-state of Singapore is both the smallest and most economically developed ASEAN member. Its almost entirely urbanised population of 5.6 million has a 97.5% literacy rate74 and it enjoys the highest standard of living in the region. Singapore is also one of the youngest countries in the region, gaining independence in 1965 following its separation from Malaysia. Unlike many of its ASEAN neighbours, Singapore suffers from an ageing population and declining birth rate. However, despite demographic trends, from 2000 to 2018, Singapore has more than doubled its university enrolment, from under 50,000 to over 103,000. Combined enrolment in polytechnics and universities has also grown, but at a more modest 68.5% in the same period.
Over the past two decades, Singapore’s reputation as a global financial centre and trade hub has only grown in prominence, and the standing of its education system is no exception. Singapore’s higher education system has undergone significant developments, following then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong’s policy objective of turning the country’s flagship universities, the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), into “world-class” institutions. Since then, the universities’ global and regional rankings have steadily climbed, placing them shoulder-to-shoulder with prestigious Western institutions. Singapore now has a total of six public universities, including a National Institute of Education affiliated with NTU. The ascent of Singaporean universities has undoubtedly been bolstered by robust government spending: in 2018, the government’s tertiary education budget expanded to SGD4.6 billion compared to SGD3.08 billion in 2015 and SGD1.5 billion in 2000.75 Government spending on education and education-development project is not only reflective of Singapore’s economic success, but, like other infrastructure projects, is viewed as a means of boosting political legitimacy in Singapore.
Major Developments
Despite the corporatisation of Singapore’s public universities in 2006, government expenditures on tertiary education only grew, and additional funds were allotted to providing subsidies and start-up loans for foreign institutions to open campuses in Singapore as part of the Global Schoolhouse initiative. However, since its inception in 2002 and the opening of numerous foreign-owned campuses, some projects under the initiative have been slow to culminate; several foreign-owned universities, such as the Chicago Booth School of Business and the University of New South Wales, that set up campuses in Singapore have since relocated or closed due to lower-than-expected enrolment. However, in 2019, the École Hôtelière de Lausanne, a Swiss hospitality and tourism school, was granted certification to open a campus in Singapore with hopes to attract aspiring non-Asian hospitality students to gain Asia-specific experience.
While privatisation of higher education has been a prominent theme in Singapore and throughout the region, there is evidence of efforts by the government to transform reputable private universities into public institutions. In 2017, the Singapore Institute of Management, a private university that opened in 2005 and is known for its strong network of foreign partners through its SIM Global Education arm, was restructured to become the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), Singapore’s sixth public university. With an inaugural class of over 2,000 students, SUSS’s core objectives of lifelong learning and applied social sciences also reflect the wider goals of Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE).
Regarding budgeting, Singapore’s Tuition Grant Scheme (TGS) still remains a core source of funding not only for Singaporean students but also for permanent resident and international undergraduates. Tuition fees at public universities have consistently increased in recent years, with non-subsidised annual fees for an Arts and Social Sciences degree at NUS and NTU being SGD29,850 and SGD32,950, respectively, while most degree programmes at SMU cost as much as SGD44,770. In contrast, government subsidies reduce tuition fees by approximately 75% for Singaporean students, but only 45-50% for international students. Furthermore, permanent residents and international students who sign up for TGS are required to sign a three-year service bond with a Singapore registered company following their graduation. This incentive ensures that government subsidies for non-citizens ultimately contribute to the local job market and economy.
Singapore also boasts one of the highest degrees of internationalisation among ASEAN countries, with local private institutions partnering with foreign universities to import degree programme curricula as well as foreign faculty to teach on-site. Such programmes allow students to learn from instructors from foreign institutions, use identical curricula and resources as the partner university overseas, and be granted a degree from that university while residing in Singapore. Such degree programmes not only appeal to Singaporean students but also make for a more cost-effective alternative for other students in the region to attain a higher degree from a Western university.
Another landmark in Singapore’s internationalisa-tion efforts was the establishment of the Yale-NUS residential college in 2011, marking the first time in history that an Ivy League university has established a physical presence in Asia. NUS’s acclaim as Asia’s top university in recent years has been further solidified through its symbolic tie-up with Yale. Yale-NUS, which is an appendix of NUS’s main campus, attracts a large number of foreign students as well as professors directly from North America, bringing a unique American-style learning environment to Singapore. The establishment of Yale-NUS is, however, more than a simple institutional tie-up, but rather the setting up of an experimental liberal arts institution that emphasises the training of graduates to be “well-rounded” individuals who are well versed in both Eastern and Western traditions.76
One of the newest and most ambitious initiatives in Singaporean higher education came with NUS’s announcement in late 2020 of its plans for a joint collaboration between its Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Science to form a new interdisciplinary college, the College of Humanities and Sciences. This unlikely collaboration is reflective of NUS’s, and the MOE’s, agenda of shifting away from subject specialisation to interdisciplinary learning. By bringing these two faculties together, NUS hopes to boost the competitiveness of its social science graduates, who currently belong to the university’s largest faculty. These changes likely reflect an adaptation to changing demands and dynamics in the local and regional job markets, which require “breadth of knowledge, depth, as well as the ability to integrate multiple disciplines to solve complex problems.”77 NUS’s planned joint collaboration runs parallel with SUSS’s emphasis on practical, applied social sciences, and along with the ongoing development of Yale-NUS shows that Singaporean higher education remains committed to the social sciences and humanities, but is taking measures to adapt the field to changing economic circumstances.
Latest Developments in the Era of COVID-19
Following the outbreak of COVID-19, Singapore’s MOE took extensive measures to monitor and regulate movement into and out of university campuses. Given Singapore’s large proportion of foreign visitors and international students, ensuring the safe return of students at Singaporean universities was a matter of great concern. Universities like NUS required all students and staff to regularly take their temperature and upload them to online systems, obtain special permission in advance to enter campus, and required faculty to conduct classes via Zoom. This marked a sudden shift to large-scale online learning operations. It has also required staff to design exams and evaluations to be distributed online. As a means of relieving financial burdens brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Singaporean public universities have frozen payable tuition fees for the 2020 academic year for local students. However, this special assistance is not available to permanent resident and international students.
ZANE KHEIR
Zane Kheir recently graduated with a PhD in Comparative Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore.
APRIL 2022 | ISSUE 10
State of the Region: The Commemorative 10th Issue
