Third time's the charm? The Government's last U-turn on the fourth university is still fresh on the minds of polytechnic graduates and their parents. What has changed in the last four years to merit a relook?
Education Correspondent SANDRA DAVIE tracks the twists and turns on the road to a fourth university
Sept 1 2007
BUILDING a fourth university is well and good, but Mr Chew Ah Bah wishes it had been set up a decade ago. That might have enabled his three sons to get university degrees right here at home.
All three did well enough in polytechnic to progress to universities in Britain, where they earned first class honours. But sending them abroad required big sacrifices from Mr Chew, 63, and his wife, Madam Ong Kin Choo, 56.
Over the last 12 years, he has had to clean out his savings earned from his small trading business in herbal products. He also mortgaged the family's three-room flat.
And Madam Ong deferred plans to retire from her job as a factory operator.
Recognising the quality of a Singaporean polytechnic qualification, the British institutions - University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Surrey University and Imperial College London - allowed the boys to complete their degrees in two years.
Singapore's existing publicly funded universities were less welcoming.
From yes to no
THE proposed fourth university is expected to cater to polytechnic upgraders like Mr Chew's sons.
While the news cheered those with children about to enter the polytechnics, the Chews and other Singapore families like them feel it should have been set up years ago.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced the decision in his recent National Day Rally speech, noting that more students were doing well in school and eyeing a university education.
To Madam Katherine Wong, 48, the situation sounds familiar. It had begun happening in the 1990s. And a panel headed by then-senior minister of state for education Peter Chen had recommended setting up a fourth publicly funded university.
Thousands of polytechnic graduates were heading to universities abroad every year, after being rejected by the local universities.
A new university could cater to these degree-hungry polytechnic graduates. The panel had proposed that the new university be set in a different mould from the existing three, providing a strong practical and technical orientation compatible with the polytechnics.
But then came what many saw as a U-turn on the policy.
A new minister of state, Dr Ng Eng Hen, led a panel to review the university sector, including the proposal for a fourth university.
'There is neither need nor any advantage to be derived in creating a fourth university,' said the panel's 2003 report.
It was better, it said, to leverage on the reputation and expertise of the existing universities, especially the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
The panel suggested that NUS create two 'niche' campuses besides its Kent Ridge flagship: a research-intensive university in Buona Vista and a small, specialised institution for a graduate medical programme and other health sciences.
NTU was to be expanded, to offer programmes in the physical sciences, humanities and design and media.
Madam Wong, 48, is one of those who felt let down by the decision. Her son Sean had just completed his engineering diploma programme and was entering national service.
She ended up cashing in an endowment policy and taking a company loan to send her son to Australia for two years.
She is surprised that the fourth university is now back on the table.
'Really, I hope it happens this time round,' she said. 'But I do wonder how come just four years ago they decided there was no need for it and now suddenly there is a need.'
Insight put this question to Dr Ng, who is now Manpower Minister. He defended his panel's recommendation as the best one at that time.
His panel, he said, had the same end goal as Mr Chen's: to increase the proportion of each cohort with a place in local universities to 25 per cent by 2010. At the time, only about 20 per cent made it to university.
'We had to look at the best way to offer additional places in the university,' Dr Ng said. 'A fourth university was not necessarily the best or the speediest way to provide the additional places.'
He also pointed out the economic backdrop to each panel's review. In 2000, when Mr Chen's committee was set up, Singapore's economy was already back on its feet after the 1997 financial crisis.
But by the time Dr Ng's committee came into being in 2002, Singapore was headed for its worst recession in almost 40 years.
'When I came in, the world had changed. Our unemployment was up to 6 per cent, the economy had gone down, the Bali bomb blast; there was also a budget deficit.'
(tis is really no link lor)
The right time
THE environment has changed again. 'For one, the graduate job market could not be more different now,' Dr Ng said.
'In 2003, we created 20,000 jobs a year. This quarter, we created 60,000 jobs. That's the contrast you are talking about: in one quarter alone, we created three years' worth of jobs compared to 2003.'
Even if the job market had been healthier then, a fourth university would not have been the right solution at the time, he stressed.
It would have taken too long, he said. The Government had to act quickly to create enough places in time for the 'Dragon baby' bulge that would reach university age starting this year.
'Our challenge was to give students both a place and a good degree,' he said. 'In retrospect, even if the economy had been doing well, I think to expand NTU to absorb that 4 per cent would probably have been the quickest and best way to do it.'
This, in turn, raises the question of why a fourth university is needed now, instead of continuing to expand the existing three. After all, these have the advantage of already having strong reputations. NUS, for example, was placed 19 in the last Times of London's world ranking.
Current Minister of State for Education Lui Tuck Yew, who leads a committee to develop the fourth university, has a ready answer.
He said that, four years ago, the three universities still had room to grow, especially NTU. They have since reached their optimal size, with both NUS and NTU having an undergrad population of over 20,000 each. The Singapore Management University (SMU) was always meant to be a boutique university. (huh? wtf?)
Expanding them further could adversely affect their quality, Rear-Admiral (NS) Lui said.
The other advantage of setting up a new university is that it could add diversity to tertiary education.
In particular, it could cater for the kind of students now heading overseas, including the polytechnic upgraders.
The minister had said his panel would study different university models - including the technical universities of Europe, the American liberal arts colleges and foreign specialised institutions - and then recommend, in a year, one or more models for Singapore's fourth or even fifth university.
A new route
POLYTECHNIC students who have been cheered by the news said it is time the Government provided them with a suitable university route.
They said their older peers, including gold and silver medallists, could have secured places in local institutions but opted to go overseas because they were allowed up to two years' exemption on their degree course.
An example is Mr Lucas Lim, 27, who returned recently from his studies in Australia. 'I did my sums and realised that though the two years overseas will cost me more, I will start working earlier,' he said.
Like him, several other polytechnic graduates interviewed complained how the university system is geared to favour the students coming through the A-level route.
Their admission criteria, the timing of the annual admission exercise and even the way courses are taught provide a better fit for A-level holders.
'The new university should suit those who come through the polys. For one, poly students do better when the teaching is more hands-on and practical,' said Mr Lim, who has a first-class honours degree.
Like many of his poly peers who headed to Australia, he is considering migrating there in the future. (good on you)
His disenchantment comes through most clearly when he says that polytechnic students have a tougher time not just in university admissions, but also in getting government scholarships.
He points out that it was only just a few years ago, in 2002, that a polytechnic graduate won the Public Service Commission's prestigious Overseas Merit Scholarship.
The hunger for degrees is such that parents are also wondering if the Government is still too conservative. It is now aiming for 30 per cent of every cohort to enter the local universities - but why stop there, some ask.
'Shouldn't the Government be looking further, to increase it to 40 per cent as in the European countries?' said Mr Kumara Rajan, 38, who has two school-going children. 'It can be easily done by converting a couple of the polys into universities.'
He argued that raising it to 30 per cent would add only another 2,400 places a year, taking it to a total of about 16,000 to 17,000 university places a year.Going by this year's 28,000 applications from polytechnic and A-level graduates to the three universities here, that would mean a rejection for 40 per cent of applicants.
In 1990, 15 per cent of each school cohort made it to the local universities. This went up to 20 per cent in 2000 and will be raised to 25 per cent in 2010. The rate is now 23.5 per cent.
But what is significant though is that up to half of each cohort do end up with degrees, whether from here or overseas - ample evidence of the burgeoning demand for university education.
Avoiding the pitfalls
STILL, RADM Lui believes that Singapore has been wise to raise the number of local university places at a gradual pace.
Singapore has avoided the pitfalls of expanding the university sector too quickly. In some countries, universities have had to handle high dropout rates and graduates who find it tough to land jobs.
He is also opposed to converting polytechnics into universities.
Citing Britain's experience, he said: 'The elevation to university status has diluted former polytechnics' mission as institutions that imparted solid, applied skills that employers demand.
'None of the former polytechnics given university status in l992 has made it to the top 50, even by 2007, and most remain in the bottom half of the UK's university league tables.'
Mr B.K. Lim, 44, a former project manager, appreciates the fact that there must be a careful balance between quality and quantity.
The father of two secondary-school-going boys has a business degree through distance learning. He was among the first to be laid off when his firm shed workers four years ago. He ended up driving a taxi.
'As a parent, naturally I want more university places for my children, but it's not so good if the standard is brought down too low just to admit more people,' he said.
Polytechnic student Carolyn Tan, 19, who is looking forward to the fourth university, agrees: 'It will take some time for the new university to gain a reputation. So the Government should not set the bar too low. It must be a high-quality institution.'
This, RADM Lui said, is exactly what the Government aims to do.
'If we go by the timescale for the establishment of SMU, it took three years,' he said.
'The commitment has been given, subsidised university places for 30 per cent by 2015, and a high-quality education...We will deliver.'
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