The Government is thinking of setting up a fourth university. “One university for every one million,” says DPM Tony Tan — a handy slogan, if ever there was one.
As an undergraduate, this issue strikes me close to home. My visceral response is to reject the notion out-of-hand. A university degree ought to imply some exclusivity, and opening a 4th university, and a 5th and 6th, will erode the prestige that’s attached to the degree. Effectively, you get ‘degree inflation’. Though more Singaporeans get Singaporean degrees, Singaporean degrees are perceived as less valuable; the bar is raised even higher, and everyone loses out. The fact that Job Applicant X has a degree no longer conveys useful information to her prospective employer about her intellectual and professional calibre.
Eventually, the ‘gold standard’ is forced upwards: a postgraduate degree, a double degree, a joint local-overseas degree, etc. In fact, this inflationary pressure already manifests itself in the rising demand for and the (correspondingly) rising supply of double-degree and joint degree programmes at the 3 universities.
The Concept of a “University”: An Analysis of Basic Features
I do think this intuitive view has some truth to it. But to avoid being branded an (irrational) elitist, I must justify this view. From a critical standpoint, I object to how we tend to use the word, “university”, very loosely, not least in Singapore. We need to unpack this concept of a “university”, so that we know what exactly are the implications of maintaining 4-6 universities in Singapore.
