Building Excellence in Higher Education : Singapore’s Experience

Over the last 30 years, Singapore has developed a system of higher education that is the envy of many other countries and regions. How has Singapore developed such a highly performing education system? Was it planned? Was it mere luck?

Written by Arnoud De Meyer, who is widely regarded as one of the pre-eminent management educators and leaders in higher education, the book focuses on Singapore as an in-depth case study of how to build a system of higher education, and specifically a portfolio of highly differentiated and diversified universities. He worked closely together with Jovina Ang during the preparation of the manuscript. This book is unique because it showcases several case studies of the emerging system of higher education, and it was written based on insights drawn from interviews with the key decision-makers and actors in the system from the past 20 years, including ministers and permanent secretaries of the Ministry of Education, and presidents and chairmen of the six universities. The success of this system can be attributed to several factors: the clarity of purpose of the decision-makers, with clear targets in cohort participation rate, commitment to significant funding for education and research, discipline of an intelligent and well-implemented governance system, flexibility in adjusting plans, and rapid and adaptive learning from overseas partners. In the last few chapters, the authors look at the future of the system and postulate how it should be adjusted to the changes in Singapore and the world.

This unique book on educational strategy would be of particular interest to educational specialists and policy-makers in emerging countries who want to build a system of higher education, policy-makers in mature industrialised countries who are faced with the challenge of revamping their system of higher education, strategists who are interested in dynamic capability building and philanthropists who want to use education as an equaliser of social status.