21 January 2019
The National University of Singapore has defended its promotion and tenure policies, describing them as “robust”.
This is in response to a recent Today newspaper article, which has since been taken down. The news article quoted several academics, who had left NUS and the Nanyang Technological University, as criticising the way staff are promoted or given tenures.
The academics also questioned what they claimed was a fixation with university rankings.
NUS Provost Ho Teck Hua said that in 2017, about six in 10 assistant professors who applied for tenure were successful.
The latest discussion comes after NUS revamped its academic talent recruitment scheme, offering “internationally competitive” salaries and million-dollar research grants to academic stars.
Academics had also expressed concern that assistant professors were being turned down for tenures despite exceeding research and publication standards.