3 November 2003

Speech by Dr Ng Eng Hen, Acting Minister for Manpower and Minister of State for Education at the Opening Session of the 2nd General Meeting on the ASEM Education Hub on 3 Nov 2003 at 9am at Ballroom III, Meritus Mandarin Hotel

1. I would like to thank the organisers for your kind invitation to address this illustrious gathering at the start of the 2nd Meeting on the ASEM Education Hub. The fact that you have come all the way to Singapore for this meeting suggests that you already believe in the merits of forging greater linkages between Asia and Europe. At the risk of preaching to the converted, let me nevertheless share a few thoughts on why there is a need to do more to encourage our two regions to collaborate.

2. Asia and Europe are important players in the global economic market as well as in the international political arena. Cooperation between the two continents is critical to promoting development and prosperity, and maintaining peace and stability in our regions. Both Asia and Europe have a rich heritage of history and culture. More interaction between both continents will enhance our mutual understanding and appreciation of our differences and our common ground. Together, we can also tap upon our individual strengths and expertise to increase our intellectual capital.

3. This morning, I shall focus on the importance of interaction through higher education exchanges and collaborations. In particular, I want to share my views about the place of faculty and institutional collaborations among universities in the context of the ever-increasing globalisation of university education.

4. Let me first start by sharing some observations on the most essential ingredient to make universities succeed - the student. Reports tell us that there are nearly two million tertiary-level students who now study outside their home countries. It's a given that foreign students bring in revenue - universities do not survive on ideas and aspirations; they too need to balance their budgets. The Global Student Mobility 2025¹ report estimates that each year, these students contribute over US$11 billion to the US economy and over AUD$4.2 billion to the Australian economy. It is not surprising therefore that many countries consider education services an important growth sector that should be exploited much further.

5. The Global Student Mobility report forecasts that this demand for international higher education will grow to 7.2 million in 2025. This is more than a three-fold increase. The report believes that Asia will dominate total global demand, reaching 70% by 2025, an increase of 27 percentage points from 2000. China and India will be the countries to watch, as they are projected to generate over half the total global demand. Given such tremendous growth, it is understandable for any institution or country to ponder whether it is attracting its fair share of talent and revenue.

6. But beyond revenue, progressive universities also benefit in other tangible ways from taking in bright foreign students, and indeed, many like Singapore, offer substantial scholarships to attract such students. Hans De Wit in his book "Internationalisation of Higher Education in the USA and Europe" points out that internationalisation has been pursued for a variety of national or supra-national objectives at different points in history. For example, during the Cold War era, the US embarked on international initiatives from area studies to the National Defence Education Act. In Europe, with the formation of the European Union, one of the key factors has been the need to promote a sense of European consciousness among students. This has given rise to programmes such as ERASMUS and SOCRATES to promote student mobility among EU countries.

7. International students also bring with them their varied cultures and backgrounds. This diversity adds vibrancy to the university. Local students who may not otherwise have the opportunity to live in these other countries get the experience of interacting and living with their foreign counterparts. In an increasingly globalised world, such inter-cultural understanding is definitely an asset.

8. Students themselves of course stand to gain in many ways from studying in another country. They can gain access to higher quality programmes or higher status qualifications that may not be available in their home countries. They can also broaden their horizons, to immerse themselves in another culture to enhance their educational experience and give them an extra edge in the job market. One of the attractions of an INSEAD MBA is the option to spend time at both campuses - in Fontainebleau for the European perspective, and in Singapore for a sense of the Asian culture and business environment.

9. Singapore prides itself on being a very cosmopolitan place, welcoming people from all over the world to our shores. As many as a quarter of our resident population hail from other lands. At our universities, foreign students make up 20% of the undergraduate population and nearly 70% of the postgraduate research enrolment. However, the vast majority of them come from only a few countries that are geographically closer to us. Out of a total undergraduate enrolment of 22,000 last year, the National University of Singapore only had 14 students from Europe. The out-bound situation is similarly skewed. Not surprisingly, the most popular destinations are English-speaking countries - Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States in order of popularity. Of the 19,000 Singaporean students enrolled in OECD countries in 2001, about 24% went to EU countries, but if the UK is excluded, this drops to only 0.6%².

10. In this regard, Singapore is not unusual. Continental Europe has not had its fair share of the migrant students. About a third of the total number of tertiary-level students studying overseas worldwide study in the United States. This works out to half a million students. Another nearly 175,000³ study in Australia and 230,000⁴ in the UK. This leaves less than half in the rest of the world.

11. These figures tell us that there is scope to increase student mobility between Asia and Europe.

12. Quite understandably, geographical and cultural proximity are key factors in students' decisions. The vast majority of the international students in Singapore come from the region. Scandinavian students tend to go to other Scandinavian countries. France attracts a large share of its foreign students from among its former colonies. About 75% of students from Asia and Oceania go to English-speaking countries, which have an edge given the importance of English as the international lingua franca⁵.

13. Nonetheless, steps can be taken to overcome the language and cultural barriers that exist. While we should respect people's preference for, say hamburgers and fish and chips, there is no reason why we cannot cultivate their taste for something different - for example, Chinese dim sum or German sausages or Swedish pickled herring. Introducing new cuisines will not only bring welcome relief to the jaded palate, but may also inspire new fusion cuisines, exquisite combinations never before imagined.

14. Short term student exchange programmes are one way we can give a larger number of students a taste of the cross-cultural experience. Last year, our two public universities sent more than 200 students to ASEM countries and received around 430 students from these countries. The students benefit from the experiences in both countries, while the institutions benefit from the extra buzz created through these cultural and intellectual exchanges.

15. If we consider the creation of knowledge which has no finite boundaries, then the possibilities for win-win outcomes become far more exciting. With a more international diet through a more varied selection of partners, universities can encourage a fertile exchange of cultural cuisine, leading to new and innovative intellectual dishes.

16. Moving the student is, of course, but one approach. Transplanting teaching and research staff at the universities can also have the effect of creating a more stimulating environment for the staff and by extension, the students. Being such a small country, Singapore has found it necessary to be very outward-looking. Among the teaching faculty at the 3 universities in Singapore, only half are Singapore citizens. However, only 7% are from Europe, more than half of them from the UK alone. Among the research staff at the universities, the proportion from other countries is even higher, but the percentage from Europe is even lower, at 3.7%. There is obviously room to diversify the staff profile much further. In this matter, I leave it to you to work out, over the course of this Meeting, how best to facilitate the exchange of faculty and research staff for greater synergies in education and research.

17. For the internationalisation effort to succeed, there has to be commitment at the macro level, whether driven by the government or by the institution.

18. The Singapore government has been attracting leading universities to Singapore as part of our strategic intent to become a global hub for world-class tertiary education and research. Let me just highlight a few examples. As mentioned earlier, INSEAD has set up an Asian campus in Singapore. The more common mode of collaboration is the establishment of joint programmes for education and research with the local universities. The Technical University of Munich (TUM) has partnered NUS to set up the German Institute of Science and Technology to offer Masters programmes in industrial chemistry and more recently, in industrial and financial mathematics. The Design Technology Institute is a collaboration between NUS and the Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e) to conduct research and education in Product Design and Development.

19. At the bilateral level, our universities themselves understand the importance of internationalisation and have signed formal agreements or Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with over 180 Institutes of Higher Education from the ASEM countries. Through these MOUs, they have collaborated in student and staff exchanges, research projects, and co-organisation of seminars and conferences. There are also numerous informal collaborations.

20. Joint programmes tap on the complementary strengths of the partner universities and offer the best of both worlds to the students in terms of choice of course modules and project or research attachments. For example, the Nanyang Technological University has tied up with Sweden's Linköping University to offer both single and dual Master of Science programmes in Human Factors Engineering. The Singapore Management University (SMU) has partnered Switzerland's University of St. Gallen (HSG) to develop and deliver two management studies programmes, one on Management in Europe at the HSG campus in St. Gallen, Switzerland, and the other on Management in Asia at the SMU campus in Singapore. One bonus is that students often finish their degree courses with added fluency - or at least basic communication skills - in a foreign language.

21. On the research front, collaboration among likeminded partners has also brought about positive outcomes. Let me cite just one example out of many. The Centre for Advanced Media Technology (CAMTech) is a joint research and development centre between NTU and the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics of Darmstadt, Germany. Among the projects that are being developed is its Virtual Factory which simulates the production processes in a manufacturing plant. It makes use of animated 3D scenes to show events within the relevant contexts so that information detail is preserved and enhanced. The visualised simulation model makes it easy for even non-technical decision makers to understand the simulation results. Another project on the Peranakans aims to create an interactive environment for visitors to experience through digital media the unique heritage of the Straits Chinese. They are currently developing a virtual tour guide who can track each visitor, derive information about their interests and personalise the guided tour accordingly. These projects may be based on virtual reality, but there is nothing virtual about the intellectual gains of such cross-fertilisation of ideas and culture.

22. While bilateral efforts have proved fruitful for Singapore, multilateral forums also have a key role to play. The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) was first conceived in October 1995 as a mechanism to strengthen links between Asia and Europe. Despite the long history of contacts, links between these 2 continents have paled in comparison to the links between Asia and the US, and between Europe and the US. ASEM serves as a platform to strengthen links in three main areas - political dialogue, economic cooperation and cultural exchanges through people-to-people cooperation.

23. The ASEM Education Hub (AEH) evolved from an idea first broached by Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong at ASEM 2 in London in 1998, to promote educational exchanges between Asia and Europe. These exchanges are unique in that they will take place between learning centres, or hubs, of excellence that universities in ASEM countries will host. Since the inception of the AEH scheme, a total of 25 universities - 15 from Asia and 12 from Europe - have registered with ASEF to offer hubs and scholarships for student exchanges. There is certainly potential for this network to grow so as to better fulfil the strategic intent of this initiative.

24. In addition to student exchanges, the AEH network could expand to include faculty exchanges and joint research projects. In time, the AEH network could evolve to rival that of other established international networks such as the ASEAN University Network⁶ (AUN), Universitas 21⁷ and the Association of Pacific Rim Universities⁸ (APRU).

25. This morning, I have outlined in brief the level of Asia-Europe interaction among universities, their staff and students, and compared it with their interaction with countries like the US, UK and Australia. As leaders of academia in your countries, you will have to decide whether increased collaboration is desirable and if so, how it can be achieved. I believe that interaction between Asia and Europe needs to be enhanced and that this is a competitive edge that we can capitalise upon as the demand for tertiary education grows. We are at the crest of a large wave of educational entrants. A more open global environment will help us capture a share of this intellectual talent. But more importantly, collaboration can help us push the frontiers of our knowledge and create a whole that is certainly more than the sum of its parts. I wish you a very fruitful discussion in the days ahead.