‘Education without limits’: The digital resettlement of post-secondary education and training in Singapore in the COVID-19 era

ABSTRACT

This article reports on how those working in post-secondary education and training in Singapore perceive the professional effects of a transition to online learning, teaching and assessment (LTA) as a consequence of the COVID-19 global pandemic. It draws on a survey sample of n = 1553 educators and trainers working in Singapore and their perspectives on how a migration to online LTA is producing long-term, if not permanent, changes to the organisation and delivery of post-secondary education and training. It reveals a largely positive view of digital resettlement of education and training in Singapore as a consequence of COVID-19. Yet despite the articulation by respondents of ‘paradigm change’ and ‘education without limits’, we find that an embrace of digitalisation is mobilised (and manipulated) not so much by pedagogical concerns but by economic ambitions and a utilitarian logic common to the neoliberal incantations of a global education policy community.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• post-compulsory education and training
• educational digitalisation
• market transformation
• digital futures

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Institute for Adult Learning and is linked to the WDARF funded project: Digital Futures of Work.

Notes on contributors

Richard Watermeyer

Richard Watermeyer is Professor of Higher Education and Co-Director of the Centre for Higher Education Transformations (CHET) at the University of Bristol.

Zan Chen

Zan Chen is a Principal Researcher at the Institute for Adult Learning Singapore.

Bryan John Ang

Bryan Ang is a Researcher at the Institute for Adult Learning Singapore.