International Academic Advisory Panel's Recommendations on Development of Singapore's Higher Education Landscape

34 Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan asked the Minister for Education (a) which of the recommendations on the development of Singapore's higher education landscape made by the International Academic Advisory Panel will be adopted; (b) how will the adopted recommendations be implemented; and (c) when will the adopted recommendations be implemented.

Mr Chan Chun Sing: MOE convened the 12th International Academic Advisory Panel (IAAP) last month, which affirmed key directions for the University sector, including approaches towards developing agile and resilient graduates and the role of our Institutes of Higher Learning in supporting continuing education and training.

First, our University curricular must continue to strike a good balance between equipping students with depth of understanding of a core field, while providing them with exposure to a range of fields beyond their core discipline of study. Our Autonomous Universities (AUs) have been introducing multidisciplinary approaches within the curriculum and will also continue to prepare their students through experiential learning.

Second, the IAAP endorsed the AUs’ ongoing efforts to support lifelong learning by making learning more accessible, such as through more flexible pathways, work-learn modality, stackable modules and blended learning. Our future efforts will explore new models of partnership, both across institutions and with industry, to enable better demand aggregation for skills. For example, intermediaries could work with SMEs to aggregate skills demands. MOE will study these ideas and see how to implement them progressively.

Third, we discussed the need for University teams to develop and draw on the strengths of a broad diversity of talent, including academic as well as industry, technological and administrative expertise, to better meet the evolving needs of learners.

Our AUs must continue providing industry exposure opportunities for faculty and leverage appointments of adjunct or associate faculty with industry expertise. Moving ahead, the AUs will consider how their career tracks and organisation incentives can better attract industry expertise, encourage collaboration across faculties and with industry, and increase the faculties' contributions to lifelong learning.

Taken together, the IAAP’s suggestions and views will inform how our Universities can position themselves for the future. MOE will study the ideas and work with our institutions to implement the recommendations.