4th University in Singapore - What are your expectations?

[UCLA_Lim]

The new university will focus on science, engineering, information systems and architecture.

Compare this with a recent article in "Inside Higher Education" ( http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/07/09/baldwin ) where I quote:

"But the focus by reporters and educational policy makers on the potential closure of some colleges may mask a more serious threat to liberal arts colleges: a slow abandonment of their traditional mission in favor of a more “professional” orientation.

This longer-term and more significant trend was first highlighted by the economist David Breneman nearly 20 years ago in a 1990 article that asked, “Are we losing our liberal arts colleges?” At that time he concluded that many one-time liberal arts colleges were not closing, but gradually transforming into “professional colleges” as they added programs in vocational fields such as business, communications and allied health."

Then my question is: Are we really getting a LAC? Or is the government just giving us another university focusing on what simplysheena commented as "studying courses that serve a practical and functional purpose in order to secure steady income-generating jobs in future".

[cleanerdung]

The fourth university will focus on science, engineering, information systems and architecture.

The liberal arts college is not the fourth university. The liberal arts college is planned to be part of NUS. The fourth university and the liberal arts college are separate and distinct entities.

[UCLA_Lim]

Good to know.

However, I'm concerned about the LAC being planned as part of NUS.

One of the most prominent strengths of a LAC is that it emphasizes holistic undergraduate education by:

1) Not having graduate programs and not admitting graduate students.
2) Emphasizing teaching and not research.
3) Evaluating its faculty on teaching and not research output, thereby directing the faculties' time to exclusively focus on undergrad matters.

Given NUS's lofty goals of being a competitive research university, how is a LAC that is part of NUS to live up to the mission of being a true LAC?

[koo86]

Originally Posted by UCLA_Lim

Good to know.

However, I'm concerned about the LAC being planned as part of NUS.

One of the most prominent strengths of a LAC is that it emphasizes holistic undergraduate education by:

1) Not having graduate programs and not admitting graduate students.
2) Emphasizing teaching and not research.
3) Evaluating its faculty on teaching and not research output, thereby directing the faculties' time to exclusively focus on undergrad matters.

Given NUS's lofty goals of being a competitive research university, how is a LAC that is part of NUS to live up to the mission of being a true LAC?

Have to agree on u with this, unless they plan to make it a separate college, i don't see how it will work out

[cleanerdung]

Originally Posted by UCLA_Lim

Given NUS's lofty goals of being a competitive research university, how is a LAC that is part of NUS to live up to the mission of being a true LAC?

Utrecht and Yonsei are both research intensive universities with LACs. It's not entirely impossible. I guess you've gotta start somewhere.

[UCLA_Lim]

I did a bit of checking on Utrecht and Yonsei on the web.

Yonsei does not seem to have a LAC. What it does have is a College of Liberal Arts, like a school of liberal arts where liberals arts are taught. This is different from a Liberal Arts College system.

Utrecht, however, do have a 3-yr LAC housed within Utrecht University, called the University College Utrecht (UCU). It offers no graduate courses and its students chooses from holistic majors such as Humanities, social sciences or sciences as a whole. UCU students are considered students of Utrecht University and have access to all its facilities. But it seems to be independently managed and separate from Utrecht University other than both sharing the same campus.

I failed to find any information on the faculty within UCU, and if these are independently employed and managed by UCU or they're just using faculty members from Utrecht University. I think this is an important point because if faculty members within a LAC are not given the space to teach without worrying about research, then the whole concept of a LAC focus will not fly.

[RickSteves]

ST: 4th university to open 2011
By Amelia Tan

THE fourth university here will be named the Singapore University of Technology and Design, or SU for short, and will take in the best and brightest students in the country and region when it opens in 2011.

It will start small, with a cohort of up to 500 undergraduates, but this will gradually be increased until it reaches 4,000 undergrads and 2,000 graduate students.

SU's president will be the former engineering dean at the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Professor Thomas Magnanti, 64.

The university will offer four degree programmes: Architecture and sustainable design, engineering and product design, engineering systems and system design and information engineering and design.

As their tentative names imply, design will be a common element taught in all four courses.

Learning will be inter-disciplinary, collaborative and hands-on. Students will be grounded in knowledge in maths and science as well as social sciences and humanities, and will also collaborate on projects with undergrads who are taking the other courses.

[koo86]

Originally Posted by RickSteves

ST: 4th university to open 2011
By Amelia Tan

THE fourth university here will be named the Singapore University of Technology and Design, or SU for short, and will take in the best and brightest students in the country and region when it opens in 2011.

It will start small, with a cohort of up to 500 undergraduates, but this will gradually be increased until it reaches 4,000 undergrads and 2,000 graduate students.

SU's president will be the former engineering dean at the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Professor Thomas Magnanti, 64.

The university will offer four degree programmes: Architecture and sustainable design, engineering and product design, engineering systems and system design and information engineering and design.

As their tentative names imply, design will be a common element taught in all four courses.

Learning will be inter-disciplinary, collaborative and hands-on. Students will be grounded in knowledge in maths and science as well as social sciences and humanities, and will also collaborate on projects with undergrads who are taking the other courses.

Please mind my bluntness but this is like an MIT media lab rip off

[Run]

Originally Posted by koo86

Please mind my bluntness but this is like an MIT media lab rip off

Well, in my opinion, I guess it is good to emulate an established system first (in the Singapore context, that is), then if the system works, the university can go on to introduce initiatives and programs of its own.

Anyway, the university is designed with input from MIT, so I guess it would follow MIT's system somewhat.

[RickSteves]

Architecture and sustainable design
Students will study architecture, with a focus on environmentally-conscious design, to capitalise on the growing green building movement worldwide.

Engineering and product design
Designing, developing and bringing to the market electrical and mechanical products, such as planes and cars.

Engineering systems and system design
Students will analyse, manage, design and improve complex technical systems, like urban transportation, manufacturing and energy systems.

Information engineering and design
Designing, developing and manufacturing information devices, such as digital music players and cellphones.