15 minute read
President of NUS
TRANSFORMING HIGHER EDUCATION TO MEET FUTURE CHALLENGES: THE EXPERIENCES OF NUS— INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR TAN ENG CHYE, PRESIDENT OF NUS
Zsolt Csepregi, August 2020, Budapest
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Professor Tan Eng Chye
Elected as president of the National University of Singapore in 2018, Professor Tan Eng Chye is the 23rd leader to head the institution. He obtained his BA in Mathematics and did his PhD at Yale University. He joined NUS in 1985 and has held visiting positions at various universities overseas. His work as an educator and scientist earned him numerous awards and honorary titles. He is also a member of several councils, e.g., in the International Advisory Council of the Southern University of Science and Technology in China; Singapore’s Future Economy Council; the Agency for Science, Technology and Research; and the National Research Foundation.
Singapore’s local universities are highly regarded globally. The National University of Singapore (NUS) and, particularly, the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have done very well on the global ranking of universities. What are the main factors in the case of NUS that have made this impressive accomplishment possible?
Allow me to preface my responses by first highlighting the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a small country globally connected to the world, Singapore has been greatly impacted by the pandemic—our GDP is expected to contract by up to 7% this year, an unprecedented figure. Universities, not just in Singapore but across the world, have also been affected. For NUS, our core activities lie in three spheres: education, research, and enterprise. Each of these has global dimensions, such as international student exchange, overseas startup nodes, research with partners, and many other connections, and all these have been impacted to a certain degree, in some instances drastically.
In the long term, it is not yet clear how the higher education landscape would be permanently affected by COVID-19. However, the tentative picture emerging suggests an employment and labour market that will be much changed, with old jobs disappearing, and new ones, requiring new skills or a new blend of skillsets, rising in demand. Universities will have to cater for this changing environment and to reconfigure themselves quickly if they are to remain both relevant and dynamic.
However, returning to your question, perhaps let me start by saying that universities in Singapore do not have as long or distinguished a history as those in the US or Europe. NUS is Singapore’s oldest university; still, we are only 115 years old. So, in university terms, we are a relative youngster!
The development of NUS and other local universities has actually been in tandem with Singapore’s development as a nation. NUS started as a small medical college supported by the local community when we were still part of the Straits Settlements, under British rule. Our first intake was a modest twentythree students.
When Singapore first gained independence, and for many years afterwards, our priority was to train and educate young cohorts of students for a rapidly developing nation. During this period, NUS
focussed on being a university with a strong educational emphasis.
As Singapore became an advanced and then a First World economy, it was no longer sufficient to model ourselves against other countries; to go further, we had to innovate and come up with our own unique ideas and solutions. As the nation’s flagship university, we had to do the same. This approach was behind some of our pioneering initiatives during the period, including U Town, Duke–NUS, Yale–NUS, the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, among others. These ground-breaking efforts brought us global prominence and recognition.
The Singapore Government has also played a crucial role and has been far-sighted in making higher education a key pillar of global competitiveness. For example, the government set up the framework for publicly funded Autonomous Universities in 2005, which allowed each university to pursue individualised strategies as corporatised, not-for-profit entities.
In the case of NUS we aimed to become a broad-based comprehensive university, with complementary strengths in education, research, and enterprise excellence. In terms of research, a significant factor propelling NUS’s ascendant trajectory has been Singapore’s strong commitment to funding R&D. Our first National Technology Plan (1991–1995) had a budget of USD 2 billion; for the current Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) plan from 2016 to 2020, the funding commitment was SGD 19 billion.
On a concomitant basis, innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) were stepped up as core University endeavours. I&E links up to our research and education activities by seeding an entrepreneurial culture, creating start-up opportunities for our students, faculties, and researchers, and by bringing our most promising breakthroughs and technologies to market. It bears emphasising that, although education, research, and I&E are distinctively separate activities, synergy is critical to expanding and maximising opportunities, and to amplify the impact of our research advances and innovations.
A final factor behind NUS’s continued ability to adapt and innovate has been the unwavering support of our university community, past and present. In particular, our alumni, which now number almost 300,000, can be found across the world and play an active role in shaping the university’s evolving role in meeting the challenges of the future.
What do you see some of the most pressing short- and long-term challenges that NUS and universities across the world need to address are?
Much like other universities, our immediate priority during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was the safety and well-being of our community. We instituted measures such as temperature scanning, safe distancing, and staggered work schedules to reduce the risk of transmission within the campus. Meanwhile, we also took the opportunity to innovate and enhance our services by introducing, for instance, a mobile app, uNivUS, which allows for real-time
updates and notifications, along with forms to submit health declarations, amongst other features. This helps to keep our community informed and assured of the latest developments and measures.
Our second concern was the impact of the pandemic on our graduating cohort. We recognised that the employment market would be much more challenging for them this year. Our response was the NUS Resilience and Growth Initiative 2020, which includes employment assistance, enhanced financial aid for students, and funding support for start-ups with community impact. We aim to provide 200 jobs within NUS to our new alumni, with another 800 apprenticeship positions with partner enterprises.
Although unexpected, COVID-19 demonstrated the power of disruptive forces to impact individuals and communities. By scanning our environment, we can try and anticipate other disruptive forces with equal or even greater power to impact the future. Universities can then play a positive role by alleviating negative impacts, providing solutions, or helping the community to respond or adapt to change.
One clear emerging theme today is sustainability. This comprises a whole range of major issues, such as climate change, energy and food security, and sustainable development. Successful sustainability solutions will also need to incorporate the notion of equitable access and the promotion of broad community benefits.
Another major disruptive force at work is digitalisation and the ongoing waves of technology advancement. Working from home (WFH) became the norm during this COVID-19 period, and this may be the start of a decisive shift towards new ways of living and working in the future.
COVID-19 also gave a significant push towards online learning. While not yet fully replacing inclass learning, blended classrooms, particularly for universities, may become more widely practised. This has major implications on how we develop, deliver, and assess the learning of our students. Digitalisation, as well as other technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, are gaining tremendous momentum in reshaping the world of work. Industries and jobs will be disrupted and subjected to constant rapid change. Therefore, we need to prepare not only our young students but our existing workforce and to keep learning and adapting to changing conditions.
For universities, this means that if we are to play an important role in such a future scenario, we will have to change our traditional focus, embrace teaching and learning as a lifelong endeavour, and reach out to many more diverse groups of learners.
NUS has been innovating at a rapid pace to meet the challenges of future employment. What are some of your key considerations, and how do you envision lifelong learning, a strategy that Singapore has deemed essential for its global success?
We are evolving quickly because the world around us is changing so rapidly. The overriding concern is to prepare students to be future ready. This means not just accumulating knowledge but using it in creative and imaginative ways to solve problems. We also seek to enhance long-term employability, and this means cultivating traits such as resilience, adaptability, and embracing a constant spirit of learning.
We seek to foster these qualities through innovative, integrated, and experiential learning programmes. Our core approach includes our General Education (GE) framework, which offers a broad range of topics distinctively separate from each student’s disciplinary interest. We also strongly encourage interdisciplinary and crossdisciplinary learning and knowledge application to broaden intellectual frameworks. In June this year, we announced that we would be piloting ten Cross-disciplinary Degree Programmes (CDPs), and we are planning to do more. Extended internships and apprenticeships will also become a more distinctive feature of our student programmes.
For us, a small nation without any natural resources, our people are the primary and most valuable asset. Singapore’s national movement for lifelong learning is known as SkillsFuture. Lifelong learning is the key to increased productivity, economic resilience, and global
competitiveness. It has not been easy to shift mindsets to embrace continuous learning, but the message has steadily gained broader acceptance. To be successful, extensive coordination between the government, industry, and education providers such as universities is needed.
On NUS’s part, we made a major shift with the launch of NUS Lifelong Learners or NUS L³ programme, wherein every NUS student enrolment will be valid for twenty years from the point of undergraduate admission. This opens the avenue for our 300 thousand alumni to access a wide variety of courses, ranging from short modules to full postgraduate programmes. These courses are nationally certified and emphasise skills-based learning and industry relevance.
On the other hand, adult learning is different from undergraduate learning. Learners have different needs and priorities. I think there is great scope for innovation and adaptation in adult learning, and this is a field which will show rapid growth and development in the decades ahead.
Where do you see the opportunities and areas where universities in Europe and Asia can collaborate further? Singapore is known for its alliance between the government, the industry, and its universities. How was this synergy achieved?
We continue to see many opportunities in research, education, and enterprise that universities in Asia and Europe can partner with and collaborate on. In research, a strong starting point would be the recognition that many of the challenges the world faces today are common in nature, complex, and closely interrelated. For example, no country is likely to be able to mitigate climate change by implementing measures solely on its home territory. Another area would be resource management, which would require extensive innovation and adjustments across the complex chain of consumption, production, and logistics. This is certainly beyond the range of expertise and capabilities of any one nation. Collaboration and partnership will be crucial if we are to achieve a new era of sustainability.
Powerful technologies such as AI and bioengineering are beginning to reshape societies. We need to better understand their ongoing and potential impact across diverse communities and learn to tailor solutions that are a better fit. As Asia is growing in economic strength and depth, there is an increasing need for the East and West for greater mutual understanding to bridge perspectives and to align approaches. Interactions, exchanges, and exposure programmes, at professional, academic, and student levels can be immensely beneficial for improving communications and building strong bonds and networks. NUS has many strong ties with universities across Europe, and we look forward to growing our relationships in the years ahead.
Concerning the synergy you asked, in Singapore, we have a unique arrangement, known as the tripartite arrangement which brings together the
government industry, and the labour force. Through extensive discussions, broad directions for various sectors of the economy are mapped out, including manufacturing, lifestyle industries and services, and the built environment. These discussions are framed in key platforms such as the Future Economy Council and the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Plan.
Industries and higher education leaders, for example, at NUS, are then encouraged to explore areas of cooperation and partnership that align with these broad directions. For NUS, we believe in public-private partnerships that are long-term and synergise and align efforts in our key areas of research, education and training, and enterprise.
NUS has also established Corporate Labs, in partnership with leading companies. Corporate Labs are funded by the National Research Foundation in key research themes such as offshore marine engineering, cybersecurity, and applied materials. Besides research-related projects, our labs aim to develop talent and manpower as well as to offer training and apprenticeship opportunities. Projects with the most promising prospects may be offered market or commercialisation opportunities, with strong support by NUS’s vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, which includes access to VC funding, IP support, and access to global markets.
Our research activities are not undertaken in isolation but are embedded as parts of wider, integrated, thematic research clusters such as sustainability, maritime issues, and Smart Nation (that is to say, data sciences, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, optimisation research, and analytics). This encourages the efficient diffusion of new ideas and knowledge within the cluster and speeds up the cycle of application and innovation within a broader space.
So synergy is a key approach that allows NUS to focus its efforts and resources in an integrated manner and to maximise benefits and outcomes across the interlinked domains of research, education, and enterprise.
Singapore is a very diverse country that has various communities with different mother
tongues, including Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil. However, education is conducted in English. What are some of the highlights and challenges of this practice?
We were a former British colony, so the language of administration, law, and international trade was naturally English. After gaining independence, English was retained as the working language, which served two essential functions: the efficient understanding among our diverse communities and the bridge that facilitates our connection to the world. Singapore’s livelihood, then as now, depends on our connectedness, and English has played a major role in enabling our seamless and rapid communications with the world.
We have retained and indeed promoted mother-tongue education in our schools because we see the language as a key transmitter of culture and heritage. Through such an approach,
we try to blend the best of both worlds: English for modern knowledge and global ease of communications and mother tongues to preserve diversity and identity. Here, credit should go to our comprehensive and rigorous preuniversity education system for instilling this deep-seated appreciation for English as a common language and mother tongues as cultural transmitters.
Our connectedness with both East and West has since become one of the distinctive features of Singapore as a global city. And our comfort and familiarity with diversity has proved invaluable in building linkages and networks across Asia, including China, India, and Southeast Asia.
Singapore sits at the crossroads of the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean and at the heart of ASEAN. How does NUS see its role and explore possibilities within these regional and geographic frameworks?
Singapore is indeed fortunate to be strategically located at the crossroads of East and West and the heart of ASEAN. There have been many projections that the weight of economic growth will shift towards Asia and the Pacific Rim sometime during the 21st century and that this will dramatically expand opportunities for growth and development.
As a trade-dependent nation, Singapore has always committed to supporting an open, rulesbased trading system. Our consistent position has been that a relatively free flow of goods, services, and ideas offers the best path forward for nations and communities at different levels of development to tap into diverse opportunities and to attain growth and prosperity. As such, if the world, or a region, should take a decided shift towards reducing access, or tightening the flow of trade and exchanges, it would significantly impact Singapore, and by extension, NUS. We are observing the rising US–China trade tensions with close concern, and we hope that differences can be resolved with goodwill and mutually beneficial arrangements.
A university is an organisation with a unique mission, as it is charged with advancing knowledge and uplifting society through innovation, ideas, and new technologies. One of the most powerful ways to do so is through partnerships, sharing, and exchanges.
As a university, we are globally oriented. We have many partners and collaborations both within Asia and globally. For example, we offer double and joint degree programmes with other leading universities, and our students enjoy overseas exchange and internship programmes that range across the world. Another example would be our overseas start-up nodes where our globally recognised brand, Block 71, often partners with established entities such as major corporations and government enterprises to tap into local and regional markets and opportunities. In 2019, we number some 350 partner universities in the Americas, Australia, Asia and Europe. Many of our programmes and initiatives would not be possible without an international component or partnership.
NUS is also an active member of several leading global university alliances, such as the International Alliance of Research Universities, the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, and the ASEAN University Network.
ASEAN is our home region and the one we are most familiar with. With the region’s projected dynamic growth, we see entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial education as powerful tools to deliver innovation, create new markets, and expand opportunities for individuals and communities. I have already mentioned the startup nodes we had established in various ASEAN nations; we are also actively encouraging our NUS students to explore and immerse themselves in the region through internships, exposure programmes, and exchanges.
In summary, we see international linkages and collaborations as essential to raise the relevancy, impact and dynamism of NUS.
3 ASEAN PERSPECTIVES
