SU Council Blog

Dear fellow students,

Let me first thank all of you for your earnest feedback during our recent Welfare Survey, held in conjunction with the Welfare Packs Giveaway every Semester. The number of respondents – in excess of 7,000 – is representative and heartening, as it has debunked the myth that NUS undergraduates are apathetic.

If you recall, one particular set of questions was meant to solicit feedback from the grounds to be presented to the Education Minister. We collated the key issues brought up by you, and raised them on your behalf to the Minister for Education, Mr Heng Swee Keat, in our recently concluded Tri-University dialogue with him – spearheaded by NUSSU.

I have attempted to encapsulate the salient points raised as well as the Minister’s responses to your key queries in this post, and sincerely hope for your active participation by commenting constructively here.

Affordability of Tertiary Education and Social Mobility

An issue close to many hearts was the affordability of tertiary education. NUSSU holds the stance that the increased education fees in recent years should first, not turn students in the lower economic strata away such that tertiary education only becomes available for the ‘higher class’ and second, not further polarise the society. This was raised to the Minister together with the perceived weakness and inadequacies in the current financial aid system.

Singapore being a meritocratic society (and NUS being a needs-blind institution), we as individuals are expected to be judged based on our efforts and on merits, not our economic backgrounds when entering NUS. This explains the support mechanisms that are in place to facilitate students from all walks of life in receiving tertiary education so long as they so qualify. However, NUSSU still feels that there might be less understanding for students from the lower economic strata. Currently, the Household Per Capita Income (PCI) of NUS undergraduates at 25th percentile is $1,200, higher than the national average of $940 in the 21st to 30th percentile. This disparity seems to infer that the wealthier one is, the better chances one has of entering University. Next, even as individuals from the lower income group are able to enter, with additional financial pressures, they might have to forgo academic opportunities like overseas exchange programmes, which incur additional costs, in their education pursuit; putting them at a disadvantage vis-a-vis their wealthier counterparts particularly when traits honed through these experiences such as global awareness are appreciated by many employers in their recruitment.

This accentuates a greater need for a more comprehensive financial support framework to provide a greater safety net for this group of students, ensuring that they receive a holistic education in NUS.

In response, the Minister agreed that this fraction of students should not be neglected but at the same time also highlighted that Singapore has been relatively successful in enhancing accessibility of tertiary education for lower income students and cited Singapore’s ratio of 1:2 as compared to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s 1:3 and the World’s 1:4. He also emphasized on the need for a delicate balance with respect to University tuition fees grants. Drawing comparisons with welfare states, he cautioned that with the higher the subsidies from government, the greater the financial burden for future generations, as taxpayers pay for the education system.

Sole Focus on Academic Excellence as well as the Competitive Education System

Many also mentioned that the current education system is too examinations-oriented and competitive. While we maintain the stance that an individual’s value system is equally important as one’s economic capability, the sole emphasis of the current education system seems to only focus on academic excellence. We recognize the gradual shift towards more Continuous Assessment and less weightage on exams in NUS, but the level of competition remains, in fact might have even intensified in this process. We also commented that collaborative learning may prove to be more effective than inculcating a competitive culture in tertiary institutions.

The Minister responded by highlighting plans to implement Character and Citizenry Education (CCE) which he felt is critical to help impart important values such as trust, honestly, integrity, caring for others as well as respect for life and property. In addition, CCE helps students to understand their role as citizens and the realities of the globalized world. He also acknowledged that the current education system is not exactly the best and hence requires constant improvements to fine-tune existing grading systems.

Quality of Education

Some common feedback we received on quality of education include curriculum being too theoretical and not imparting relevant skill sets applicable for future practice, inconsistent quality and passion among professors and teaching staff across NUS etc.

This was raised to our school administration and clarifications showed that a stringent program has been in place to evaluate and act upon substandard teaching, hence effectively ensuring that professors and teaching staff balance their research work with teaching duties. Tenures for faculty members who are poor at teaching will also not be extended and heavy weightage of their assessment is placed on students’ feedback (especially qualitative comments) through the semester module feedback. The NUS Senior Management and Administrators take a very serious view of the need for quality teaching and monitors teaching regularly, through student feedback and peer review. The annual review of all lecturers/Teaching Assistants (TAs) is also developmental – an iterative process to help lecturers/TAs improve their teaching and effectiveness through mentoring, guidance, even courses and workshops. (On a side note, I would like to encourage you to take the online feedback every semester seriously and provide quality feedback to help improve the quality of teaching for your junior batches).

We brought this up again during our dialogue with the Minister and he acknowledged that the three local Universities have differentiated themselves significantly to employers and the typical Singaporean worker is more employable compared to her neighbours in the region, given their strength in having good cultural knowledge. However, the Europeans, Americans and Australians are still ahead of Singaporeans in terms of writing and communication skills. He added that the ideal future graduate should possess skills such as collaborative spirit, ability to work across teams, effectiveness and digital literacy.

International Diversity

With increasing international diversity, both in the immediate NUS community as well as across many major global cities which we will end up working in future, we acknowledge the need to increase global awareness and cultural sensitivity among NUS students.  NUSSU also advocated for a constant evaluation of MOE’s policies on the admission criteria and system for international students, with a view and emphasis on facilitating social integration of these students. While NUS is a premier global University centered in Asia and has been likened to a global microcosm, it is not ideal if too many of our students cluster and congregate within their different nationalities, locals inclusive, or hold disrespectful views of other nationalities that they freely express. We thus urged the Ministry to refine its admittance system without being discriminatory – to ensure the intake of deserving, qualifying, open-minded international students who also show a willingness to integrate with the rest of the NUS Community.

The Minister acknowledged NUSSU’s point that there is a need to be stringent in terms of foreign student selection and highlighted that integration “takes two hands to clap”. He also added that the current Foreign Student ratio will be decreased to 15% eventually, but foreigners will still be around to compete with Singaporeans for jobs even if Singapore does not take in any foreign students at all and urge Singaporeans to strive to surpass their pursued limits.

Conclusion

With these in mind, we would like to hear more from the rest of you. If there are any pressing issues or comments that you have, please feel free to comment (constructively) below so that your points can be raised to the Ministry. We hope to compile a paper, taking in all your feedback, to be submitted to the Ministry for follow-up.

We can also be reached through our feedback email, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or our individual NUSSU emails.

Last but not least, I wish that you have a fulfilling and successful year 2012 ahead. We look forward to working with you in the upcoming semester.

Happy New Year!

P.S. Don’t forget to bid for your modules while you are enjoying (what’s left of) your holidays (: