JS-23.4
A Globalizing University Centered in Asia: State and Society Interactions in University Restructuring
K.C. Ho (Sociology, NUS)
East Asia countries are late comers in international education, league tables and world class university formation. This entry was marked by a fundamental restructuring of the university system, particularly top national universities whose traditional role has been the training of the nation’s elite.
My paper discusses Singapore’s restructuring experience and its consequences in terms of its search for international talent for professors and students, its focus on basic research rather than applied or policy research, and its increasingly ambiguous relationship with society and community. Drawing from a professorial survey of the country’s two largest comprehensive universities, the paper discusses impact of the internationalization drive and its connections to Singapore’s global city-state status, its implications of being unhinged from its traditional societal roots from a variety of disciplines: science and engineering, medicine, and business and management, and the reactions of different societal and community groups to this shift.