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Measure of a U
NUS celebrates her centennial this year.
There are many things to be proud of. She has a rich heritage that is intricately linked to Singapore. She is a rising Asian university gradually gaining a world class reputation. In a 2004 ranking exercise by The Times of London, she was ranked 18th, ahead of Cornell and UPenn.
Accolades and felicitations are definitely in order.
However, centennial celebrations should not just be a self-congratulatory event. It should also be a time of review and introspection. In that spirit, MM Lee and SM Goh advocates the need to attract the best in the region and in the world. No doubt the influx of talent is hoped to increase the position of NUS in global ranking exercises and surveys.
Rankings are important, but to me, they are not the be-all and end-all of a university. Ranking criteria change with each exercise. The Academic Ranking of World Universities 2004 published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University for example, accords NUS a less glamorous position in the 101-151 category.
The fact is this: academic ranking alone does not make a university world class. A university can be consistently ranked first in all global academic rankings, but it won't make students anymore attached to it. Sure, there is a certain pride in knowing that you're schooling in a top university, but that pride by itself is fleeting. Without a sense of espirit de corp and ownership, this pride is unsustainable upon graduation.
Yale, Harvard and MIT, three premier US universities, are openly competitive with each other. More so between Yale and Harvard and less between Harvard and MIT. Healthy or not, the espirit de corps and sense of fellowship in the student bodies is tangible and real.
What of the universities in Singapore? Some might point towards the disdain apparent in NUS students during the occasional comparison between NUS and SMU. But how much of that is external (reacting out of spite due to guerilla marketing tactics) rather than internal (reacting out of a sense of pride and genuine love for one's university)? Perhaps Singaporean students are a more sensible lot. Perhaps Singapore is too small for such rivalry to be constructive. Perhaps university students here simply do not care one way or the other, as long as their timetables are not disrupted and they are awarded that certificate at the end of the day.
Still, amidst the centennial celebrations, I cannot help but feel sad that many local university students donning a university tshirt today will not derive from it pride, passion and fellowship. To me, that would have been worth more than a number one position in any academic ranking exercise.
Filed under: Personal, Musings, Education
There are many things to be proud of. She has a rich heritage that is intricately linked to Singapore. She is a rising Asian university gradually gaining a world class reputation. In a 2004 ranking exercise by The Times of London, she was ranked 18th, ahead of Cornell and UPenn.
Accolades and felicitations are definitely in order.
However, centennial celebrations should not just be a self-congratulatory event. It should also be a time of review and introspection. In that spirit, MM Lee and SM Goh advocates the need to attract the best in the region and in the world. No doubt the influx of talent is hoped to increase the position of NUS in global ranking exercises and surveys.
Rankings are important, but to me, they are not the be-all and end-all of a university. Ranking criteria change with each exercise. The Academic Ranking of World Universities 2004 published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University for example, accords NUS a less glamorous position in the 101-151 category.
The fact is this: academic ranking alone does not make a university world class. A university can be consistently ranked first in all global academic rankings, but it won't make students anymore attached to it. Sure, there is a certain pride in knowing that you're schooling in a top university, but that pride by itself is fleeting. Without a sense of espirit de corp and ownership, this pride is unsustainable upon graduation.
Yale, Harvard and MIT, three premier US universities, are openly competitive with each other. More so between Yale and Harvard and less between Harvard and MIT. Healthy or not, the espirit de corps and sense of fellowship in the student bodies is tangible and real.
What of the universities in Singapore? Some might point towards the disdain apparent in NUS students during the occasional comparison between NUS and SMU. But how much of that is external (reacting out of spite due to guerilla marketing tactics) rather than internal (reacting out of a sense of pride and genuine love for one's university)? Perhaps Singaporean students are a more sensible lot. Perhaps Singapore is too small for such rivalry to be constructive. Perhaps university students here simply do not care one way or the other, as long as their timetables are not disrupted and they are awarded that certificate at the end of the day.
Still, amidst the centennial celebrations, I cannot help but feel sad that many local university students donning a university tshirt today will not derive from it pride, passion and fellowship. To me, that would have been worth more than a number one position in any academic ranking exercise.
Filed under: Personal, Musings, Education
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