18 December 1999

SPEECH BY DR TONY TAN KENG YAM, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER FOR DEFENCE, AT THE JOINT FUNCTION OF THE MIT CLUB OF SINGAPORE AND THE SINGAPORE-MIT ALLIANCE HELD ON SAT, 18 DEC 99 AT 7.35 PM AT THE GRAND COPTHORNE WATERFRONT

I would first like to thank the MIT Club of Singapore and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for inviting my wife and me to this joint function.

The MIT Club of Singapore is the local alumni association of graduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Club has some 16 years of history in Singapore. Besides being a body for interaction and networking, the Club has served as a useful platform in contributing to professional and educational development in Singapore and beyond.

The Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA), through the strong partnership of NUS and NTU with MIT, started its academic programmes just this year. Using state-of-the-art delivery modes and cutting-edge curricula, the SMA provides an innovative learning experience leading to a top-quality postgraduate degree in engineering. Beyond serving its educational mission, the Alliance is a springboard for both NUS and NTU to introduce institutional improvements on a broader scale.

Over the years, NUS and NTU have fulfilled their role of producing graduates who have contributed significantly to Singapore's development. University cohort participation rose from 5% in 1980 to 21% in 1998 – a four-fold increase in less than two decades. The two universities have also achieved competence in various academic and professional programmes. In selected disciplines, NUS and NTU have, in fact, gained international recognition. We should be proud of these accomplishments and the progress NUS and NTU have made in fulfilling the twin objectives of educating top talents and training sufficient number of graduates to meet the needs of our country's economy and society.

As we move into the next millennium, we have to ask a fundamental question of how NUS and NTU can help Singapore better prepare for the new knowledge-based economy where the competition is global.

A knowledge-based economy is driven by ideas, innovations, intellectual property and information. Being knowledge institutions, NUS and NTU have the critical role of creating, imparting and applying knowledge in support of national objectives.

Creating knowledge requires our university faculty members to cultivate a spirit of inquiry for the pursuit of research. Research fosters nimble and imaginative minds in our faculty members and brings about renewal of intellectual capital.

Imparting knowledge is facilitated by quality teaching incorporating new modes of learning and assessment, using material gained from research. Knowledge encompassing ideas and facts, come to life and grow when utilized and combined in imaginative ways in the classroom.

Applying knowledge is the transformation of ideas into useable products and services. This activity is the main engine driving economic growth in a knowledge-based economy which in turn, sustains the cycle of creating, imparting and applying knowledge in universities.

The three facets of the cycle of excellence in a knowledge-based economy – creating knowledge, imparting knowledge, and applying knowledge – are inextricably intertwined. Universities which aspire to play a significant role on a national, regional and global scale must aim to excel in all three areas. How can NUS and NTU achieve this objective?

In April this year, when I spoke at the Stanford Club Dinner in Singapore, I announced the setting up of a Review Committee, chaired by the Permanent Secretary (Education), to examine the governance structure, management of funding, and staff recruitment and management practices of NUS and NTU. Later in September, the Committee conducted a study trip of universities in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Hong Kong to gain first-hand information of university governance and funding in these countries and to see what lessons can be learnt for implementation in Singapore.

The study team observed that university structures around the world could be broadly divided into two groups. At one extreme are the market-driven, fiercely competitive and flexible systems as exemplified by the top private and public American universities. These research-oriented universities apply stringent criteria in faculty appointment, promotion and tenure. In contrast, British and Asian universities operate under more structured systems. In these universities, faculty recruitment, promotion and determination of salaries are more centralised and faculty remuneration is linked to nationally determined pay scales.

It is opportune for NUS and NTU to consider how the best practices in the overseas universities can be adapted to our local context, taking into account our present stage of development. At the same time, the practices to be adopted should enable our universities to continue to be effective in fulfilling their twin objectives of educating top talents for the knowledge-based economy and training competent manpower in sufficient numbers for our country.

To impart knowledge effectively and creatively in our environment, faculty members and administrators in our universities have to develop and implement a flexible and innovative curriculum for a diverse student body that has a wide range of abilities. By doing so, they would stretch the best students and enable these students to realise their potential while not neglecting the rest of the student body. To cater adequately for such a diverse student body, our universities should seriously rethink the notion of "one size fits all" and embrace the ability-driven paradigm that is being promoted in our national schools. NUS and NTU should develop educational and research programmes which aim to educate future leaders of Singapore and enable selected disciplines to attain world-class standing. Such a move would allow a degree of customisation so that potential high achievers could be placed in a more intellectually challenging environment. The underlying philosophy is to provide the opportunity and encouragement for all students to learn at a pace that they can optimally manage.

Let me outline three ways in which customisation to achieve excellence can be achieved in our universities.

The first way is to start from scratch eg. the Singapore Management University. Starting with a clean slate, faculty members and administrators at SMU have the advantage of being able to adopt the best practices in teaching, research and administration from the overseas Ivy League universities. They will have the opportunity to implement stringent criteria for faculty appointment and assessment in order to position SMU to effectively compete with top universities of the world.

The second way is to take the stronger elements in selected disciplines from NUS and NTU and let these work in partnership with the best institutions in the world. Along this line, the Singapore-MIT Alliance or SMA is an initiative to promote excellence in teaching and research at the graduate level in selected areas of engineering in the two universities. Through this partnership with MIT, NUS and NTU programmes in engineering will be strengthened and in time, achieve an international reputation. As SMA matures, it is not inconceivable that the Alliance could expand its scope to include teaching and research at the undergraduate level in due course.

The third way to achieve excellence in universities is to create academically demanding programmes that put the best students in a university in an environment that has been specially designed to develop the students’ personal, intellectual and leadership qualities. One example is the NUS Talent Development Programme, centered on the Core Curriculum, which takes the best students from the Arts and Science Faculties and immerses them in a rigorous, intellectually demanding regime to stretch their intellectual capabilities and nurture their creative spirits. Specially recruited faculty members committed to such a vision will put students through a unique learning adventure and enable them to benefit from a world class programme comparable to those offered in the best universities in the world.

The three ways, I have outlined, aim to embed excellence in universities at the institutional level. But the "heart" of excellence is intellectual passion, a quality found only at the individual level. Every faculty member should strive with passion to contribute in one or more ways to the cycle of creating, imparting and applying knowledge. Faculty members' individual achievements and expertise are the building blocks for the collective excellence of a university. In short, the global reputation of a university is judged by its peaks of excellence, measured by the international standing of its faculty members.

World-class universities are very selective and rigorous in hiring faculty and deciding who is granted tenure. Faculty members, who are recruited at the Assistant Professor level, are generally given six years to work towards tenure. Around the fourth year, the faculty member is internally reviewed within the department and the head of department would advise the faculty member as to whether he or she is likely to be granted tenure at the end of the six years period. If the interim assessment is favourable, the Head of Department in consultation with senior members of his department would make a recommendation to the Provost towards the end of the six years period. The Provost would then consult with other senior members of the Faculty, in which the department is located, and submit his views to the President of the university as to whether that particular faculty member should or should not be considered for tenure. The final decision on tenure is made by the President with the advice of senior academics within the university. There are therefore three rounds of assessment at the Department, Faculty and University level before a faculty member is granted tenure. Faculty members, who are not granted tenure, leave the university at the end of six years. It is not surprising that, if the interim assessment is not favourable, the faculty member concerned would normally look for a job some where else before the six-year period expires.

In world-class universities, remuneration policies are flexible and differ from subject to subject. This makes it possible for faculty members teaching different subject to be paid different salaries depending on the market demand for their specialities. For example, it is always more difficult to recruit a Professor of Surgery than it is to recruit a Professor of Philosophy. Professors of Surgery are therefore almost always paid much more than their counterparts in the Philosophy department. This just recognises the realities of the market where different disciplines have different market values.

We have to consider if it is time for NUS and NTU to move towards a flexible, market-driven performance-based remuneration system. Are we ready to reward our best faculty members, who are comparable to their counterparts in Ivy League universities, with similar compensation? Are we prepared to implement stringent assessment criteria for appointment, promotion and tenure, as practised by top universities abroad. What about academic faculty members who may not be ready, at least in the near future, for a highly competitive appointment and remuneration system. Should NUS and NTU implement salary ranges, instead of incremental scales as at present, so that the universities would have the flexibility to pay faculty members salaries appropriate to their capability, performance and discipline? These are tough questions which are being grappled by world-class universities and which should be addressed by NUS and NTU if they are to aspire to be world-class universities.

Remuneration of faculty members is tied up with the issue of Government's apportionment of funds to the universities. Government funding will continue to play a major role in sustaining broad-based competence at our universities. Although Government funding is critical, such funding by itself does not guarantee excellence. To manage and attain excellence, the level of government funding should be linked to the universities’ goals and deliverables to ensure that the Government gets good value from the funds that are provided to the universities.

Government funding should be viewed as having to be earned by our universities and not as automatic entitlements, especially in the realm of research funding. For the universities to achieve overall excellence, faculty members will have to go out to seek more funds and compete for money from sources beyond the Ministry of Education. We want a setting where researchers are hungry for funds, and not funds hungry for researchers. Faculty members will have to stay ahead in their fields and be leaders in order to attract research funds. Those who are unable to create an impact in their fields of research will find it increasingly difficult to secure research grants.

The impending challenges posed by an increasingly integrated world require a rethinking of how we govern and fund our universities, and evaluate and reward our faculty members. We also have to take into account the forces of globalisation which challenge our universities to adopt the best practices in governance and talent management.

For our universities to stay relevant in a knowledge-based economy, every faculty member must contribute in his or her own way towards the broad-based competence of the universities. When faculty members fulfil their roles and activities with intellectual passion, their individual achievements become the building blocks of institutional excellence.

As with other organisations, NUS and NTU have to compete in a global market for talent. The demand for talent comes not only from universities in other countries but also from outside academia. Talented faculty members can command lucrative pay in industry or business. An appropriate framework for hiring, promoting and remunerating faculty is vital if a university aspires to attain world-class status. It will take the Review Committee several more months before they can finalise their recommendations and submit them to the Government for approval. Once the recommendations are implemented, they will provide a major transformation to NUS and NTU and enable them to further progress to become world class universities.