02 September 2021
When Yale-NUS College was established more than a decade ago, many faculty and students criticised the plan, citing concerns that Singapore would not be able to foster a good liberal arts education.
The criticisms died down as the college took in its pioneer batch of students in 2013, but rumblings over academic freedom surfaced again two years ago, when a module titled Dissent And Resistance was cancelled by the college.
Then Education Minister Ong Ye Kung said: “Academic freedom cannot be carte blanche for anyone to misuse an academic institution for political advocacy, for this would undermine the institution’s academic standards and public standing.”
Now, Yale-NUS college has stopped taking in new students as part of the National University of Singapore’s larger plan to merge it with its University Scholars Programme.
The onus is now on NUS to ensure that the best elements of the liberal arts education built over the last 10 years by Yale-NUS are not lost.