Singapore may not be Silicon Valley, New York, London or Oxford. But Singapore is one of the best places in the world for computer science, communication and media, and English language and literature studies. And for politics and international relations studies as well.Continue Reading
Wednesday, May 1, 2013 By
The sad case of Cherian George
I am so sorry to hear that journalism professor Cherian George’s appeal for tenure has been rejected by Nanyang Technological University (NTU). It is sad that one of Singapore’s finest journalists won’t be able to teach journalism any longer at a university in his own country.Continue Reading
Thursday, February 28, 2013 By
Cherian George: Heat on Air-conditioned Nation
Air-conditioned Nation author Cherian George is now in the news in India and Indonesia. I saw an Associated Press (AP) report on him published online by the Jakarta Post and the Hindustan Times.
According to the AP report, even one of the experts who reviewed his case is surprised that the associate journalism professor was denied tenure by the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
Thursday, October 11, 2012 By
Singapore universities’ marks for research and citations
While Singapore this year has not one but two universities ranked among the top 100 in the world, they still get comparatively low marks in one category.
I am referring to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2012-13, where the National University of Singapore (NUS) is now ranked 29th and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) 86th. Both have done better than last year. NUS has moved up 11 places and NTU a staggering 83 places to finish in the top 100.
NUS and NTU both get comparatively low marks for citations, however – 67.2 for NUS and 54.5 for NTU.
Citations: Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012-13
Even lower ranked institutions such as University of York (103rd) and Dartmouth College (124th) get higher marks for citations – 83.4 and 87 respectively – even though they get lower marks for research – 43.9 and 35.9 respectively. NUS, on the other hand, gets 87.2 for research and NTU 66.9. Dartmouth, unlike other Ivy League colleges, is not a research-based institution and yet gets more for citations.
Research: Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012-13
To get a more comprehensive picture, the top-ranked US and UK universities are included in these charts along with the leading universities of Hong Kong, China, Japan and South Korea.Continue Reading
Friday, September 17, 2010 By
NTU 69th, NUS 84th in Economist MBA rankings
I was shocked to read in the Straits Times today that Singapore's Nanyang Technological University was found below average in teaching in the Times Higher Education world university rankings. NTU dropped a hundred places to 174th spot this year while the National University of Singapore fell only four places to 34th. You can see the rankings here.
The Economist magazine, however, rates the Nanyang Business School higher than the NUS Business School.
The Nanyang Business School is 69th and the NUS Business School 84th in this year's Economist rankings of MBA programmes. The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, is 85th. INSEAD, which has campuses in both France and Singapore, is 23rd.
The University of Chicago's Booth School of Business is first and Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business is second. The University of California Berkeley's Haas School of Business is third and Harvard Business School fourth. "America rules the roost," says the Economist. See the full rankings here. Click on the links there to see short profiles of the business schools, showing their fees, student-faculty ratio, their strengths and weaknesses, the starting salaries and career prospects of their graduates.
Thursday, September 16, 2010 By
NUS 34th, NTU 174th in Times university rankings
The National University of Singapore is 34th and Nanyang Technological University 174th in the 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings powered by Thomson Reuters, released today.
American universities swept the board. Here’s the list of the world’s top 100 universities.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 By
World university rankings and their differences
Why do the world university rankings differ so sharply?
The National University of Singapore (NUS), for example, was ranked 30th last year on the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings. The Nanyang Technological University (NTU), also in Singapore, was 73rd.
But they were not even in the top 100 in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) compiled by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
NUS was among the top 101-151 on ARWU, which ranks only the top 100, and NTU far lower, among the 303-401.
That’s because the yardsticks are different.
Look at the top 20 universities on the two lists, and differences emerge. In brackets are their ranks on the rival list.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 By
Foreigners’ school fee hike: Economic implications
Singapore is taking new affirmative action to favour Singaporeans. They will get two chances instead of one to register their children in their favourite primary schools from next year. And school fees will more than double for permanent residents in 2011 while foreigners from outside Southeast Asia will have to pay one and a half times more. See this Ministry of Education chart.
While Singaporeans will continue to pay 11 Singapore dollars a month for primary school, permanent residents will pay 33 Singapore dollars (up from 14 and a half Singapore dollars), those from Malaysia, Indonesia and other Asean countries 196 Singapore dollars (up from 146 Singapore dollars), and other foreigners 256 Singapore dollars (up from 156 Singapore dollars). The fees will rise further in 2012 when permanent residents will have to pay thrice as much and foreigners more than twice as much as they pay now.
It's only fair Singapore should favour Singaporeans.
After all, it is Singaporeans who are called for national service on the principle they must be prepared to defend the nation.
One can only hope it will never come to that, for the outcome was devastating the only time war erupted on the island.
Singapore is a densely populated tiny city state 710 square kilometres in area and inhabited by 4.99 million people, which was quickly overrun by the Japanese in the Second World War, and there are much more potent weapons of mass destruction now.
Even peacetime national service puts lives in danger: conscripts have died in training. Singaporeans have to bear risks foreigners don't.
There is widespread resentment against foreigners in Singapore, who are seen as enriching themselves and enjoying the benefits of Singapore's excellent infrastructure without sharing the burden of defending the nation.
So the government has to address that resentment.
After all, Singapore is a democracy and every country gives preference to its own citizens.
But I don't think the government is trying to please the people simply because elections are coming.
The Singapore government always thinks long-term.
And what the new decision suggests, coming after the recession, is slower growth ahead for the Singapore economy.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008 By
Why Singapore universities among world’s best
Singapore has an excellent education system. This is once again proved by Singapore’s fourth and eighth graders ranking first in science and second only to Hong Kong in an international survey by Boston College. The complete report on the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study can be downloaded here.
Singapore’s excellent school system is complemented by world class universities with the National University of Singapore (NUS) ranked 30th on the 2008 QS Top 100 Universities list. The only Asia Pacific universities ranked higher are Australian National University (16th), University of Tokyo (19th), Kyoto University (25th), and University of Hong Kong (26th). Nanyang Technological University (NTU), also in Singapore, is 77th on the list. The top 10 are
- Harvard
- Yale
- Cambridge
- Oxford
- California Institute of Technology
- Imperial College London
- University College London
- University of Chicago
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Columbia University
Ranked 11th to 15th are all American universities: University of Pennsylvania (11th), Princeton (12th), Duke and Johns Hopkins (13th) and Cornell (15th). Others in the top 20 are Stanford (17th), University of Michigan (18th) and McGill University (20th).
Singapore is naturally proud of its universities, which attract academics and students from various countries.
But Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, Oxford, Chicago, MIT, Columbia, Stanford, Princeton, Caltech, Cornell, Penn, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Imperial College, University College London, Tokyo, Kyoto have produced Nobel Prize winners and are regularly in the news for various studies and achievements.
What is it that makes the two Singapore universities, which are much younger and less often in the news, world class?
Visit the QS World University Rankings website and check the detailed rankings.
Singapore universities are world class because they attract international faculty and the highest number of international students in Asia Pacific outside Australia and their academics get good peer reviews. National University of Singapore graduates also get the best employer reviews in all of Asia Pacific outside Australia. But they lag behind other top schools in research work, All these factors are taken into consideration in the world university rankings. But what counts most is academic peer review -– a survey in which more than 100 academics from Singapore took part.
Sunday, May 4, 2008 By
Rave on (about Singapore)
Thomas Friedman returns to the New York Times praising Singapore:
A few weeks ago, my wife and I flew from New York’s Kennedy Airport to Singapore. In J.F.K.’s waiting lounge we could barely find a place to sit. Eighteen hours later, we landed at Singapore’s ultramodern airport, with free Internet portals and children’s play zones throughout. We felt, as we have before, like we had just flown from the Flintstones to the Jetsons. If all Americans could compare Berlin’s luxurious central train station today with the grimy, decrepit Penn Station in New York City, they would swear we were the ones who lost World War II.
How could this be? We are a great power. How could we be borrowing money from Singapore? Maybe it’s because Singapore is investing billions of dollars, from its own savings, into infrastructure and scientific research to attract the world’s best talent — including Americans.
Everybody praises Singapore's Changi airport and the government's sound economic policy. But Singapore is getting rave notices for other things too. This photo of the Nanyang Technological University's school of art, design and media appeared on the New Republic blog on April 18. The New Republic, where the liberals hang out. "I know where I'd like to work," said the headline over the picture. One of the comments said:
Nice to see some parts of the world the average American would consider backwards is more forward thinking 'bout those green roofs.
Backward? Singapore? And the moon is made of green cheese!
