Singapore's global schoolhouse strategy: retreat or recalibration?

Abstract

In 2002 a high-level economic review committee recommended that Singapore position itself as a ‘global schoolhouse’. An ambitious target was set to attract 150,000 international students to Singapore by 2015 and to lift the education sector's contribution to GDP from 1.9% to 5% in the same timeframe. The global schoolhouse was viewed as producing a number of policy complementarities including addressing population, labour market and economic priorities. This article reviews the last 10 years of Singapore's global schoolhouse strategy from its inception until the present time. It examines the policy successes and setbacks, and present statistical evidence of its performance. In particular, the article examine the development of both the public and private higher education sectors in Singapore, the growth of the tuition grant scheme in the public universities and the introduction of the Private Education Act of 2009 in the private sector. It is argued that the 2011 general election in Singapore has proved to be an historic watershed and exposed considerable tensions between local needs and global ambitions in higher education.

Keywords:

• internationalisation
• history of higher education
• international students
• education hub
• Singapore