Looking beyond the rankings of National University of Singapore
To start off , it truly is without doubt that the consistently superb standing of NUS inside the global college education scene is a powerful testimonial of the strength of the school.
The fast progress of the university can even be noticed from casual observation without the in-depth evaluation by THE. With regards to research, the NUS medical school has forged partnership together with the Duke Medical School, 1 of the top in the United states. The combined program motivates cooperation in research as well as college student exchange.
In terms of student development, the University Scholars Program and also the U-town residential program have included significantly variety into students' academic life, ushering in western education technique inside a liberal arts environment.
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.
Nevertheless, you will discover prospective disadvantages around the preoccupation with ranking by university along with the general community as a whole. The current methodology in reviewing university is far from ideal and regularly susceptible to critique. Weight assigned to distinct areas, irrespective of how carefully considered, is essentially arbitrary.
A single major area of controversy lies with the balance involving research and teaching. A lecturer has to invest time in teaching undergraduates and carrying out research for publications. The former is taken as a major goal of creating a university even though the latter is often considered as a better criterion when evaluating the rating of a college.
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.
A number of universities, like Hong Kong University, have even set up a minimal quota on the quantity of papers to be published every thing. Even in the absence of an explicit quota, as in the instance of NUS, implicit pressure of linking publication to tenure review is adequate to nail the idea of 'publish or perish' in 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 will society stand to reap if higher university standing primarily reflects greater quality research that's primarily irrelevant to students?
In addition, some critical elements of higher education could be underrepresented in appraisal of colleges. Inspite of the high position of NUS, one particular matter stays unresolved by the college: academic freedom or autonomy. University as a notion symbolizes liberty of thinking and expression that are vehicle of intellectual advancement of society.
However, NUS and many other Asian universities embarrassingly do not achieve outstanding credit for that aspect. In actual fact, NUS president, Professor Tan Chorh Chuan stated right after the release of ranking that NUS continued progress is a outcome of consistent assistance from the Singapore government. This is already indicative on the intimate tie between NUS and the government. The truth is, the majority of the school financing originates from the government.
The compromise in academic autonomy is best noticed within the political science division of NUS that has come under critique for its very clear deficit of critical voices. The division has been described as "docile", not willing to assert itself as an third party voice inside the political discourse.
On the other hand, majority of the established schools in foreign countries are private and they enjoy substantially increased liberty of intellectual inquiry that ultimately benefits the whole society.
The truth is, the founding of Yale-NUS Liberal Arts College a handful of years ago caused much dissatisfaction around the move from the Yale community that considers the Singapore political environment as not favorable forliberal arts learning.
It's suffice to say that in addition to improving university ranking, the institution also should have to meet its social expectation by determining a fine line between getting government backing and remaining politically neutral.
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 fast progress of the university can even be noticed from casual observation without the in-depth evaluation by THE. With regards to research, the NUS medical school has forged partnership together with the Duke Medical School, 1 of the top in the United states. The combined program motivates cooperation in research as well as college student exchange.
In terms of student development, the University Scholars Program and also the U-town residential program have included significantly variety into students' academic life, ushering in western education technique inside a liberal arts environment.
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.
Nevertheless, you will discover prospective disadvantages around the preoccupation with ranking by university along with the general community as a whole. The current methodology in reviewing university is far from ideal and regularly susceptible to critique. Weight assigned to distinct areas, irrespective of how carefully considered, is essentially arbitrary.
A single major area of controversy lies with the balance involving research and teaching. A lecturer has to invest time in teaching undergraduates and carrying out research for publications. The former is taken as a major goal of creating a university even though the latter is often considered as a better criterion when evaluating the rating of a college.
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.
A number of universities, like Hong Kong University, have even set up a minimal quota on the quantity of papers to be published every thing. Even in the absence of an explicit quota, as in the instance of NUS, implicit pressure of linking publication to tenure review is adequate to nail the idea of 'publish or perish' in 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 will society stand to reap if higher university standing primarily reflects greater quality research that's primarily irrelevant to students?
In addition, some critical elements of higher education could be underrepresented in appraisal of colleges. Inspite of the high position of NUS, one particular matter stays unresolved by the college: academic freedom or autonomy. University as a notion symbolizes liberty of thinking and expression that are vehicle of intellectual advancement of society.
However, NUS and many other Asian universities embarrassingly do not achieve outstanding credit for that aspect. In actual fact, NUS president, Professor Tan Chorh Chuan stated right after the release of ranking that NUS continued progress is a outcome of consistent assistance from the Singapore government. This is already indicative on the intimate tie between NUS and the government. The truth is, the majority of the school financing originates from the government.
The compromise in academic autonomy is best noticed within the political science division of NUS that has come under critique for its very clear deficit of critical voices. The division has been described as "docile", not willing to assert itself as an third party voice inside the political discourse.
On the other hand, majority of the established schools in foreign countries are private and they enjoy substantially increased liberty of intellectual inquiry that ultimately benefits the whole society.
The truth is, the founding of Yale-NUS Liberal Arts College a handful of years ago caused much dissatisfaction around the move from the Yale community that considers the Singapore political environment as not favorable forliberal arts learning.
It's suffice to say that in addition to improving university ranking, the institution also should have to meet its social expectation by determining a fine line between getting government backing and remaining politically neutral.
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 blogging about studying in singapore in the last 5 years. Since his graduation, he has been offering 1-to-1 tuition to students , enabling them to achieve their goal of being a graduate in a prestigious university.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment