By MIKOspace
In 2008, an external,
profit-making, foreign, non-academic organization adjudged and condemned NTU to
pariah status, after she have nurtured thousands of Singaporeans (and
non-Singaporeans) and transform them into top-class engineering, science,
business, social science and other professional graduates in great demand by
renowned global corporations, and who have decisively contributed to
Singapore’s economic and social development journey from 3rd World
to 1st World.
Must
Read: True
Lies About Universities Rankings
To satisfy the World University Rankers’ preference for foreign students
and faculty members, NTU embarked on a
systematic purge of local Professors, never mind that many are tenured, have accomplished
internationally, and have served the University with distinction, and denied
admission to many qualified Singaporeans by increasing foreign students admission, and forcing those from
better income families to seek admissions to, ironically, top Universities
overseas.
Some
laws are also possibly broken with
regard to the constitutional protection of Singaporean Professors from age
discrimination, but no one in authority really cares enough to intervene in the
irrational, mindless and bloody frenzy of the cultural revolution which spares
nothing for the sake of meeting the Criteria of what the United Nations’ UNESCO
has already adjudged to be a Bogus Ranking Standard of Dubious
Excellence, in order to obtain a Brand of Questionable Authenticity.
A few hundred Singaporean Professors were purged from 2007 to beyond
2010. And more than 6,500 Singaporean students, or about 1,700-1,900 annually,
were denied NTU admission through an arbitrary cut-off point into various
3-year and 4-year Undergraduate Programs from 2009-2013 for their places to be
allocated to preferred foreign students.
Finally by 2014, NTU was ranked as the Top Youngest University in the
World by QS Ranker, and ranking just 39th Worldwide. Indeed, what a
“climb” from 77th in 2008! By
2013, foreign students made up 28% of the total undergraduate population from
just 5% less than a decade earlier. By
the end of the cultural revolutionary purge of Singaporean Professors and staff
in 2010, NTU proudly announced that Singapore Professors, including new
Singapore citizens, formed ONLY
44% of the faculty with 56% of NTU faculty being foreigners from 56 countries
worldwide including Singapore Permanent Residents. Never mind the fact that
most Universities in the World actually have a majority of local Professors,
even in the top Universities.
Given the dodgy
nature of World University Rankings and their questionable deliberate
fabrication of unreliably unscientific methodologies, NTU victories to their
top ranks are in essence as pyrrhic as winning
a beauty contest; the mere appearance of uncertain meaningless quality.
Indeed, what a wasteful use of time,
management and financial resources!
Never in the history of Singapore has so many Singaporeans been forced to become collateral sacrifices in return for nothing of any value to our nation or the world.
We should
stop participating in the essentially beauty contests of the fraudulent World
Universities Rankings, so as to stop lending them our credibility by endorsing
bogus standards of dubious quality excellence.
Come
2018, would NTU’s Decade of Shame end with a new NTU President? In
2018, a new era must begin in Singapore Universities with Professor Subra Suresh
as NTU President. The first step
should be to cease reliance on and pursuit of a bogus standard of questionable
excellence. We must return to authentic impact as the measure of excellence for
our premier institutions of higher learning.
Read
Full Article here.
NTU or formerly Nantah, is a part of Singapore's history, a part of how the immigrants struggled to give a better start and a better life for their children. It is really a same that this root of Nantah is being eradicated and cut off, strewn to the wind of ignominy by the descendants of these immigrants.
ReplyDeleteThe spirit of Nantah is the spirit of Singapore and must live on, be continued, carried forward by the children of Singapore to show its glory and rooted to its glorious past.
NUS did not have the same kind of origin but it is preserving more of Singapore's identity than NTU. It is hiring and retaining more Singaporeans than Nantah/NTU. What a shame!
The influx of foreigners into Singapore is sinful. The influx of foreigners into NTU to replace Singaporeans is a crime against Singaporeans and the children of Singaporeans. Who allowed this to happen?
Incidentally I have invited Michael Heng to be a contributor to mysingaporenews.
redbean
I was from NTU years ago.
ReplyDeleteAllow me to give my perspective of what is happening.
NTU started off as university focused on engineering and technology in 1982 and had remained so for a number of years.
The problem arose when good local students do not wish to study engineering and prefer other courses which they think offer better pay and working conditions.
So it end up the engineering faculty at NTU became a dumping ground for local students who did not manage to get their choice of course due to their poorer entry level academic results.
And good students who wanted to study engineering locally chose NUS, rather than NTU.
That's why PAP wanted to cut down on the poor results local Sinkies in NTU engineering and offer the vacancies to foreigners whom they think is much better deserving of the place.
It is also a fact that local lecturers and professors who are too long and tenured became complacent. So some need to be replaced by fresh, although untested foreign ones to try them out, so to speak. Of course PAP was hoping that this will work out well but it may not happen or perhaps it did not happen.
I would even say what is happening in NTU is also happening in the Polys and even in ITE, due to local students, especially the better ones, do not wish to study engineering and things technical. Now ITE also has foreign students!
No Singaporean should tolerate or approve the use of a fake and bogus brand for the quality excellence of our eminent higher Universities. Those who do so diminish the authenticity of the our nation, to the extent as to corrupt and nullify our usefulness to the global communities. Our continual existential survival depends critically on our true value-addedness to other countries; and using an openly bogus fake brand for dubious quality standards simply does not add to our signature credibility. Yes, even when the fake bogus brands confirm that we are indeed as good as we always claim to be!
ReplyDeleteThe government has been barking the wrong tree and screwing our citizens.
ReplyDeleteFor 35 years, it has been encouraging Singaporean students to take up engineering courses. But the plain reality is that the financially most rewarding jobs & opportunities in Singapore were in banking, law, medicine and accountancy in past 35 years, with occasional bout in IT.
In the meantime, many engineers growth prospects were dimmed by the screw-up in the poor support to local SMEs (where in most countries are the backbone of entrepreneurship, risk-taking & innovation & employment). Government GLCs played a big part cannibalizing & "landlording" the already small local market, squeezing SMEs. Without a decent local base SMEs lack the resources & critical mass to launch regionally & globally effectively. Creative Technology, our star SME in the 80s & 90s is instructional. It should have stayed listed in NASDAQ and expanded in the USA instead of listening to the government to be listed and headquartered in Singapore. In Singapore businesses & education choices, the last thing you want is to listen to the government "advices", unless you are in their "bootlicking" businesses. Many engineers ended up selling insurance & properties. Market forces & realities forced upon the citizens, unlike monopolistic politicians can "talk-cock", no need to take risk and still be rewarded with millions of dollars yearly.
Come 2018, would NTU’s Decade of Shame end with a new NTU President?
ReplyDeleteI will say good question. Is this the end or the beginning of more shame?
This is reputational corruption! Selling out our excellent Universities in exchange for a fake bogus brand of empty meaningless quality is a corrupt practice. There should be investigations into how much were paid, by whom and to who, as well as what personal benefits were gained by those who made the decisions to accept the inducements and bribery. Singaporeans are such fools to repetitively allow the World University Rankings scam to flourish openly under our very nose, affecting generations of our outstanding graduates and Singapore's hard-earned reputation as a clean, no-corruption and authentic nation.
ReplyDeleteCome 2018, would NTU’s Decade of Shame end with a new NTU President?
ReplyDeleteRB 9:05 am
The new NTU President is from MIT, a world class engineering institution.
He also lists very impressive academic and work achievements, if you care to read his CV.
Therefore one can say that he had succeeded very well in his field, but in America.
So the question is, can he succeed equally well or even better in Sinkieland, given that there is a heaven and earth difference between Sinkieland and America?
Or will he fail dismally like the Sinkie opposition, due to the different environment?