Education and human capital management in a world city: the case of Singapore

Abstract

There is considerable evidence to suggest that the human capital needs of the world city differ from what Robinson calls “ordinary cities” or what Markusen and associates term as “second tier cities”. This path is blazed most notably in the field of world cities and the flow of skilled labour, in the work by Sassen and with case examples (finance, law, accountancy) provided in the work by Beaverstock and his associates. This focuses on producer services and migration flows needs to be matched by an accompanying look at city-based strategies. This paper represents an attempt to provide this by providing a case history analysis of Singapore in three stages of growth – as port city, industrial city and as world city – in order to show how the evolving infrastructure associated with human capital (education, immigration and labour policies) allows human capital to be developed, attracted, harnessed, deployed, released and retained.

Keywords:

• human capital
• migration
• Singapore

Notes

1. The survey of 500 students was conducted in mid-2008. The non-random quota sample is designed to replicate the international student population in NUS along the following dimensions: gender, science versus non-science enrolment, undergraduate and graduate enrolment. In terms of sending countries, the sample contained 20% from the highest sending country; 20% from 2nd highest sending country, 10% from the 3rd highest sending country, 30% from all other East, South and Southeast Asian countries; and 20% non-Asians. The international student sample was asked to complete a 15-minute questionnaire which collected data on how they selected NUS, their adjustment process and their future plans. The funding for this project comes from the Singapore Ministry of Education AcRF grant R111-000-069-112. The principal researcher (Ho) thanks the Office of Student Affairs for providing the enrolment figures for international students, which allowed for the sampling design to be operationalized.