by Linda Lim, Pang Eng Fong and Hong Hai
by Linda Lim, Pang Eng Fong and Hong Hai
The following column originally ran in the Dec. 1 edition of the Straits Times , one of Singapore's oldest English-language daily newspapers. It is located online at http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg
SINGAPORE'S higher education landscape is filling up.Besides comprehensive national universities NTU and NUS, and incoming foreign player, the University of New South Wales, there are specialised niche players like SMU, Insead and the University of Chicago, as well as polytechnics, technical colleges and the SIM.
Missing from this line-up is the small liberal arts college, well-known in America for providing high-quality undergraduate educational experience and for producing a disproportionate number of that nation's top postgraduate students, as well as a good number of its educational, government, business, industry and artistic leaders.
The distinctiveness of liberal arts colleges is based on several key features. They are small, with student bodies ranging in size from 300 to 2,000; have small classes and faculty-student ratios in the one to 8-to-15 range. They focus only or mainly on educating undergraduates.
Their faculty members typically shoulder heavier teaching and student advising loads than their counterparts in major research universities.
They are also expected to be dedicated teachers at the introductory and advanced undergraduate level.
As scholars, they publish in a wider range of academic outlets than the peer-reviewed disciplinary journals required in more specialised research institutions.
Liberal arts colleges share an educational philosophy that undergraduates should be trained, not in narrow technical or professional fields but in critical thinking, reasoning, communication and quantitative skills applicable to a broad range of occupations.
They seek to equip the student with the curiosity and capability for 'lifelong learning'. Close interaction with faculty encourages challenging classroom discussions and research projects, which also develops self-confidence and communication skills.
Liberal arts college curricula focus on the arts/humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Students are required to master a distribution of disciplines e.g. chemistry, history and foreign languages, rather than any one exclusively. This requirement 'stretches the mind' and helps develop a well-rounded human being with a deeper appreciation of human accomplishments.
Few liberal arts colleges have engineering or business departments (some do, such as Swarthmore, which has engineering), but today nearly all offer computer science and IT courses as part of 'preparation for life'. Many are particularly strong in the natural sciences, sending substantial proportions of their graduates on to medical school or science doctoral programmes.
We believe that Singapore is ready for and deserving of a small liberal arts college of our own. We are already more than adequately supplied, domestically and internationally, with university places in business, engineering and most other professional training.
Only a few Singaporeans can gain admission to existing liberal arts colleges abroad, because of their cost and small size (which limits the number of international students from a particular country any one such college can accept).
Comprehensive universities and professional training programmes in business and engineering require high overhead costs in laboratory and other physical infrastructure and/or high salaries for faculty with high opportunity costs in private sector employment. In contrast, a small liberal arts college would be relatively low-cost and, properly run, could even be largely self-funding.
Assuming a peak intake of 500 students a year, and an intensive three-year programme, the steady-state enrolment would be 1,500 students a year. Charging $25,000 a year in tuition fees - a rate not much higher than that proposed by the University of New South Wales - tuition revenues alone would amount to $37.5 million a year.
Assuming 100 faculty members costing $150,000 each, total faculty cost would be $15 million a year. Administrative and support cost at 33 per cent of faculty cost would add $5 million and rental cost a further $2.5 million. a year. Other costs - utilities, materials, research support, travel and building maintenance, etc - might be $5 million. Total cost of running a college with 1,500 students would amount to $27.5 million, leaving $10 million for enrichment activities, scholarships and study grants.
Government support is critical to the establishment of a liberal arts college in Singapore. To be viable, it would need to enjoy low or subsidised land and rental costs for its property - the same benefits enjoyed by the other publicly supported institutions, and justifiable in terms of the positive externalities and multiplier effects such a college would bring to Singapore.
Unlike NUS, NTU and SMU, such a college holds the promise of being self-sustaining and self-funding. World-class faculty could be attracted at lower cost than in professional disciplines.
A liberal arts college in Singapore would also be unique in Asia and could expect to attract a significant number of international students.
It should aim to be the best in Asia and one of the best in the world, attracting some of the brightest students from the region, who would make up the majority of the student population.
These international students will go on to be among the foremost leaders in their countries. The close networks they form with friends in Singapore will be of immeasurable value to Singapore.
The Bukit Timah campus (which SMU will vacate when it moves next year to a new downtown campus) provides a possible site for the new college. The buildings and infrastructure are already appropriate for a university. The campus has a history and an environment suited for the intimate and coherent educational experience only a liberal arts college can provide.
Such a college could be aptly named the New Raffles College, both to commemorate the beginning of higher education in Singapore when the first Raffles College was established nearly a century ago, and in honour of Singapore's modern-day founder, who personified the best of liberal arts values as a forward-looking civil servant, far-sighted statesman, visionary entrepreneur and self-taught scholar of South-east Asian indigenous culture and botanical science.
Linda Lim teaches at the University of Michigan; Pang Eng Fong is with the Singapore Management University; and Hong Hai is the dean of the NTU Business School. The views expressed here are their own.