Speech for Mr Gan Kim Yong Minister of State for Education at the 2nd QS Asia Pacific Professional Leaders in Education Conference - World University Ranking Asian Award-Presentation Ceremony on 13 July 2006 at 2pm at the Nanyang Executive Centre' Auditor

SPEECH FOR MR GAN KIM YONG MINISTER OF STATE FOR EDUCATION AT THE 2^ND QS ASIA PACIFIC PROFESSIONAL LEADERS IN EDUCATION CONFERENCE – WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKING ASIAN AWARD-PRESENTATION CEREMONY ON 13 JULY 2006 AT 2PM AT THE NANYANG EXECUTIVE CENTRE’ AUDITORIUM, NTU

Recipients of QS and Times Higher Education Supplement World University Rankings Asian Awards

1. It is my pleasure to be here with you at the 2^ND QS Asia Pacific Professional Leaders in Education Conference and Exhibition.

2. This is an annual Conference for international educators in Asia and beyond. The theme of this year's Conference 'East-West Educational Partnerships - Standards and Synergy' – is timely and relevant in our context.

3. The world is fast becoming smaller with the advancement in technology. Singapore is well positioned to be the gateway and play an important role in East-West partnership. It is therefore important for our younger generation to adopt a global outlook so that they will be able to tap the many new opportunities emerging in the world. Our education system must also be geared up to prepare our students well for these challenges.

4. Our two older universities, the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, are ranked among the top 50 in the world. Our newer Singapore Management University is fast catching up. By 2008, half of the undergraduate student population at our three local universities will either head overseas to outstanding foreign universities on exchange programmes, or will take part in research or work attachments in many countries around the world.

5. Maintaining high standards is an integral objective of the development strategy of our higher education institutions, and because of this, we have seen the global standing of our institutions rise as they develop and mature. We have resisted the temptation to increase our enrolment by lowering standards or by establishing a large number of universities, but we have instead made it a priority to maintain and improve the quality of our institutions.

6. At the same time, we encourage the best US, European and Australasian universities and business schools to 'set up shop' here, either on their own or in partnership with our local universities. This is a good example of East-West Partnership. Such partnerships will be able to capitalise on the synergy between the partnering institutions to help develop excellence in teaching and research.

7. We now have a very lively landscape of East-West collaboration in Singapore. Some examples include Singapore-Stanford Partnership, Singapore-MIT Alliance, the German Institute of Science and Technology with the Technical University of Munich, the Asia Pacific Logistics Institute with Georgia Institute of Technology, Wharton-SMU Research Centre, Design Technology Institute with Eindhoven University of Technology. Many of these collaborations with Singapore universities offer both degree programmes and research programmes.

8. Some have set up campuses on their own, including the French MBA school INSEAD and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. The University of New South Wales is the latest overseas institution to start operating here and it will take in its first batch of students next year.

9. Here at NTU, the Masters Degree in Management and Hospitality jointly offered by NTU and Cornell University admitted its first class in May this year. Twenty students representing seven countries will spend one semester at Cornell and the second semester here at NTU. The advisory board for this unique programme includes industry captains and blue chip executives from both the East and the West. This is to ensure that students benefit from a world-class learning experience between the blackboard and the boardroom.

10. At the same time, Singapore’s private higher education sector has been very vibrant too. It has responded well to the market by delivering foreign degrees from a wide range of overseas institutions, setting up offshore campuses and other teaching facilities in partnership predominantly with Australian, US, UK universities but increasingly with many other countries.

11. Singaporeans seeking to further improve their professional and personal management knowledge and skills also have a wide range of choices from well established institutions such as the Singapore Institute of Management (which this year has become the SIM University), the Asia Pacific Management Institute and the Management Development Institute of Singapore, all of which confer degrees from overseas universities.

12. All these partnerships are in line with Singapore’s key strategic objectives for our higher education.

- First, our universities must continue to train and produce industry-relevant graduate manpower through quality education and serve as a magnet to attract foreign talent to Singapore.

- Second, our universities must be well positioned to generate ideas and knowledge. Their research efforts must develop both depth and breadth to achieve research excellence and produce high economic impact.

- Third, our universities must encourage international cooperation and attain international branding to establish Singapore’s reputation in the global tertiary educational arena.

13. In order to help meet these objectives in a globalised and competitive world, the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) were given greater autonomy by being corporatised on 1 April 2006 as not-for-profit public companies, similar to the Singapore Management University (SMU).

14. By devolving greater autonomy to our universities, we hope that they will be able to be more nimble and responsive. They can then further differentiate themselves, and better compete in the evolving university landscape to achieve new peaks of excellence.

15. In conclusion - we not only have a model of East-West educational partnerships in Singapore as a part of our university development strategy, but also a model of corporatisation that may be relevant to other countries. We hope to share our experience with other countries and to learn from your experience as well.

16. Against this exciting background, I would like to congratulate both QS and The Times Higher Education Supplement on your initiative in producing the World University Rankings. Your efforts will help stimulate the universities to develop a desire to improve quality and standards. Asian institutions constitute 30 of the top 200 world institutions in the 2005 survey. I am honoured to be presenting awards to the top fifteen Asian institutions. Congratulations and thank you.