To start off , it truly is without doubt that the consistently superb standing of NUS inside the global college education scene is a powerful testimonial of the strength of the school.
The rapid improvement of the university can even be discovered from casual observation without the in-depth evaluation by THE. With regards to research, the NUS medical school has forged alliance together with the Duke Medical School, one of the very best within the USA. The joint program motivates cooperation in research as well as student exchange.
In terms of student development, the University Scholars Program and also the U-town residential program have included significantly variety into students' academic life, ushering in western education technique inside a liberal arts environment.
Thus, it's not at all shocking to find out the standing of NUS escalate really fast, in addition to its reputation within Singapore and also the planet, a reputation that may be vital to draw the top students and professors, whose inflow results in a virtuous cycle of the institution's improvement.
However, you will discover prospective problems regarding the preoccupation with ranking by college as well as the general local community as a whole. The current method in assessing college is far from ideal and frequently open to critiques. Weight assigned to many areas, no matter how thoroughly conceived, is basically arbitrary.
A single major area of controversy lies with the balance involving research and teaching. A lecturer has to invest time in teaching undergraduates and carrying out research for publications. The former is taken as a major goal of creating a university even though the latter is often considered as a better criterion when evaluating the rating of a college.
If a lot of emphasis is on how many quality papers a university has published inside the first-tier global journals, for instance, this type of evaluation bias might be translated into demand for professors to publish.
Several universities, like Hong Kong University, have even placed a minimum quota around the volume of papers to be published anything. Even in the lack of an explicit quota, as in the instance of NUS, implicit stress of linking publication to tenure review is enough to nail the concept of 'publish or perish' in the heads of academicians.
Cost in putting more time in research is generally less time or attention allocated to undergraduate educating. This really is generally noticed in deficit of enthusiasm coming from academics as well as very poor availability of tutors who appear usually pre-occupied.
At the end of the day, what really does world stand to gain from if higher university standing primarily reflects better quality research that may be primarily inconsequential to students?
In addition, some vital factors of higher education could possibly be underrepresented in appraisal of educational institutions. Despite the exceptional ranking of NUS, 1 problem continues to be unresolved by the university: academic liberty or autonomy. University as a notion represents liberty of thinking and expression which are engine of intellectual advancement of society.
However, NUS and many other Asian universities embarrassingly do not achieve outstanding credit for that aspect. In actual fact, NUS president, Professor Tan Chorh Chuan stated right after the release of ranking that NUS continued progress is a outcome of consistent assistance from the Singapore government. This is already indicative on the intimate tie between NUS and the government. The truth is, the majority of the school financing originates from the government.
The undermine in academic independence is best noticed within the political science division of NUS which has come under scrutiny for its very clear lack of critical voices. The division has been labeled as "docile", unwilling to maintain itself as an impartial voice within the political discussion.
On the other hand, majority of the established schools in foreign countries are private and they enjoy substantially increased liberty of intellectual inquiry that ultimately benefits the whole society.
In fact, the establishment of Yale-NUS Liberal Arts College some years ago caused substantially discontentment around the move in the Yale community that views the Singapore political environment as not really favorable forliberal arts learning.
It is actually suffice to say that besides enhancing university ranking, the institution also needs to meet its social expectation by finding a fine line between receiving government backing and remaining politically impartial.
Without doubt just before it makes THE delighted , it ought to please Singapore students, public observers and educators first, who're the real stakeholders of the education within the country.
The rapid improvement of the university can even be discovered from casual observation without the in-depth evaluation by THE. With regards to research, the NUS medical school has forged alliance together with the Duke Medical School, one of the very best within the USA. The joint program motivates cooperation in research as well as student exchange.
In terms of student development, the University Scholars Program and also the U-town residential program have included significantly variety into students' academic life, ushering in western education technique inside a liberal arts environment.
Thus, it's not at all shocking to find out the standing of NUS escalate really fast, in addition to its reputation within Singapore and also the planet, a reputation that may be vital to draw the top students and professors, whose inflow results in a virtuous cycle of the institution's improvement.
However, you will discover prospective problems regarding the preoccupation with ranking by college as well as the general local community as a whole. The current method in assessing college is far from ideal and frequently open to critiques. Weight assigned to many areas, no matter how thoroughly conceived, is basically arbitrary.
A single major area of controversy lies with the balance involving research and teaching. A lecturer has to invest time in teaching undergraduates and carrying out research for publications. The former is taken as a major goal of creating a university even though the latter is often considered as a better criterion when evaluating the rating of a college.
If a lot of emphasis is on how many quality papers a university has published inside the first-tier global journals, for instance, this type of evaluation bias might be translated into demand for professors to publish.
Several universities, like Hong Kong University, have even placed a minimum quota around the volume of papers to be published anything. Even in the lack of an explicit quota, as in the instance of NUS, implicit stress of linking publication to tenure review is enough to nail the concept of 'publish or perish' in the heads of academicians.
Cost in putting more time in research is generally less time or attention allocated to undergraduate educating. This really is generally noticed in deficit of enthusiasm coming from academics as well as very poor availability of tutors who appear usually pre-occupied.
At the end of the day, what really does world stand to gain from if higher university standing primarily reflects better quality research that may be primarily inconsequential to students?
In addition, some vital factors of higher education could possibly be underrepresented in appraisal of educational institutions. Despite the exceptional ranking of NUS, 1 problem continues to be unresolved by the university: academic liberty or autonomy. University as a notion represents liberty of thinking and expression which are engine of intellectual advancement of society.
However, NUS and many other Asian universities embarrassingly do not achieve outstanding credit for that aspect. In actual fact, NUS president, Professor Tan Chorh Chuan stated right after the release of ranking that NUS continued progress is a outcome of consistent assistance from the Singapore government. This is already indicative on the intimate tie between NUS and the government. The truth is, the majority of the school financing originates from the government.
The undermine in academic independence is best noticed within the political science division of NUS which has come under scrutiny for its very clear lack of critical voices. The division has been labeled as "docile", unwilling to maintain itself as an impartial voice within the political discussion.
On the other hand, majority of the established schools in foreign countries are private and they enjoy substantially increased liberty of intellectual inquiry that ultimately benefits the whole society.
In fact, the establishment of Yale-NUS Liberal Arts College some years ago caused substantially discontentment around the move in the Yale community that views the Singapore political environment as not really favorable forliberal arts learning.
It is actually suffice to say that besides enhancing university ranking, the institution also needs to meet its social expectation by finding a fine line between receiving government backing and remaining politically impartial.
Without doubt just before it makes THE delighted , it ought to please Singapore students, public observers and educators first, who're the real stakeholders of the education within the country.
About the Author:
The author is a graduate of the university in Singapore and has been blogging about education landscape in Singapore in the last 5 years. Since his graduation, he has been teachinghome tuition to students , enabling them to achieve their goal of being a graduate in a prestigious university.
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