Firstly , it really is without any doubt that the continuously superb standing of NUS inside the worldwide university education landscape is a robust testimonial of the weight of the institution.
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.
When it comes to student development, the University Scholars Program as well as the U-town residential program have increased much variety into students' school life, ushering in western side education style inside a liberal arts atmosphere.
As a result, it may not be unexpected to find out the standing of NUS climb swiftly, as well as its standing within Singapore along with the entire world, a reputation that is definitely vital to draw the best university students along with instructors, whose influx enhances a virtuous cycle of the university'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 dispute lies with the balance between research and teaching. A lecturer has to invest time in teaching undergrads and doing research for the purpose of publications. The former is taken as being the primary aim of developing a university even though the latter is usually taken as a stronger criterion while looking for the rating of a school.
If a lot focus is on how many high quality papers a college has published in the first-tier international journals, by way of example, this kind of evaluation bias will likely be translated into tension for professors to publish.
Various universities, like Hong Kong University, have even set up a minimal quota on the number of papers to be published every thing. Even in the lack of an explicit quota, as in the instance of NUS, implicit stress of relating publication to tenure overview is sufficient to nail the idea of 'publish or perish' inside the heads of academicians.
Expense of placing a lot more time in research is normally much less time or interest devoted to undergraduate educating. This can be often observed in insufficient fervour from lecturers and also incredibly low availability of tutors who look always preoccupied.
At the end of the day, what really does society stand to benefit if increased university rating mainly reflects higher quality research that is certainly basically immaterial 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 educational institutions embarrassingly don't get high credit for that aspect. In actual fact, NUS president, Professor Tan Chorh Chuan stated after the release of ranking that NUS continued progress is a result of consistent assistance from the Singapore government. This can be already an indication of the intimate tie between NUS and the government. In truth, most of the university funding is derived from the government.
The compromise in academic independence is best seen within the political science division of NUS that has come under scrutiny for its obvious lack of critical voices. The division has been labeled as "docile", not willing to assert itself as an unbiased voice within the political discussion.
In contrast, bulk of the respected colleges to another country are privately owned and they have significantly increased freedom of intellectual inquiry that consequently benefits the whole community.
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's suffice to say that in addition to improving university ranking, the institution also requires to meet its social expectation by locating a fine line between having 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.
When it comes to student development, the University Scholars Program as well as the U-town residential program have increased much variety into students' school life, ushering in western side education style inside a liberal arts atmosphere.
As a result, it may not be unexpected to find out the standing of NUS climb swiftly, as well as its standing within Singapore along with the entire world, a reputation that is definitely vital to draw the best university students along with instructors, whose influx enhances a virtuous cycle of the university'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 dispute lies with the balance between research and teaching. A lecturer has to invest time in teaching undergrads and doing research for the purpose of publications. The former is taken as being the primary aim of developing a university even though the latter is usually taken as a stronger criterion while looking for the rating of a school.
If a lot focus is on how many high quality papers a college has published in the first-tier international journals, by way of example, this kind of evaluation bias will likely be translated into tension for professors to publish.
Various universities, like Hong Kong University, have even set up a minimal quota on the number of papers to be published every thing. Even in the lack of an explicit quota, as in the instance of NUS, implicit stress of relating publication to tenure overview is sufficient to nail the idea of 'publish or perish' inside the heads of academicians.
Expense of placing a lot more time in research is normally much less time or interest devoted to undergraduate educating. This can be often observed in insufficient fervour from lecturers and also incredibly low availability of tutors who look always preoccupied.
At the end of the day, what really does society stand to benefit if increased university rating mainly reflects higher quality research that is certainly basically immaterial 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 educational institutions embarrassingly don't get high credit for that aspect. In actual fact, NUS president, Professor Tan Chorh Chuan stated after the release of ranking that NUS continued progress is a result of consistent assistance from the Singapore government. This can be already an indication of the intimate tie between NUS and the government. In truth, most of the university funding is derived from the government.
The compromise in academic independence is best seen within the political science division of NUS that has come under scrutiny for its obvious lack of critical voices. The division has been labeled as "docile", not willing to assert itself as an unbiased voice within the political discussion.
In contrast, bulk of the respected colleges to another country are privately owned and they have significantly increased freedom of intellectual inquiry that consequently benefits the whole community.
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's suffice to say that in addition to improving university ranking, the institution also requires to meet its social expectation by locating a fine line between having 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 writing about Singapore education system in the last 5 years. Since his graduation, he has been offering private tuition to students , enabling them to realize their goal of being a graduate in a prestigious university.
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