University education in Singapore: The making of a national university

Abstract

This paper provides an analytical account of the transformation of Singapore tertiary education system in the post-colonial period. Using a socio-political perspective focussing upon the governing elite’s need to harness the university sector for its development ideology the paper traces the manner in which the privately — funded Chinese — medium Nanyang University and the state-supported English medium University of Singapore both underwent transformation in the crucial areas of academic freedom, university autonomy and governance. Language, cultural and educational differences arc shown to narrow in line with socio-economic transformations leading to the eventual dominance of the English medium institution. It is argued further that in the transformation the trnasformation the university lost essential western-model characteristics.