Singapore international education hub and its dilemmas: the challenges and makings for cosmopolitan learning

ABSTRACT

Higher education in Asia is massifying at an exceptional pace and scale. In this paper, I ask how practices and discourses which inform the internationalization of Singapore’s higher education can provide opportunities for developing cosmopolitan learning that it claims to provide. Cosmopolitan learning is closely related to cross-border student mobility and plays an important role in shaping the international students’ identities, aspirations and worldviews. Based on a recent study in Singapore of a group of international students from various parts of Asia and Europe, this paper attempts to bring the theoretical and grounded realities of cosmopolitan learning in an Asian context into the fore. The aim of the paper is to provide a useful frame for rethinking the purpose of international education for cosmopolitan learning in an increasingly interconnected world that is strewn with ambivalence, and what that means in the context of Singapore as an erudite nation-state critical to building Asian education hub aspirations.

KEYWORDS:

• Cosmopolitan learning
• international education
• student mobility
• Singapore education hub
• higher education

Acknowledgments

Dr Hannah Soong is an applied researcher, sociologist and educator in international education, teacher education and migration. She has specialised interests in the effects of social and cultural forces shaping the education and migration nexus. Her current research publications and projects lie in the empirical studies and theorisation of transnational mobility and education of pre-service teachers, international students and migrant teachers; sociology of Asia literacy and teacher identity work in an ‘East-meets-West’ curriculum. One key area is the investigation around developing ethical engagement with global shifts and relations in education.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Endeavour Cheung Kong Fellowship (ID: 4279­­_2015)

Notes on contributors

Hannah Soong

Hannah Soong is a Senior Lecturer and socio-cultural researcher in the field of international education.