Hybridity, the developmental state and globalisation: the case of Singapore’s universities

Abstract

This article revisits Gopinathan’s and Lee’s and Gopinathan’s arguments about the relationship and role of the developmental state and education in the era of globalisation. The paper first discusses the role and impact of the developmental state and globalisation on Singapore’s higher education since 1990 to set the context. Drawing upon documentary evidence and interviews with four key academic staff at the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, the paper discusses the issues of East–West hybridity in Singapore’s higher education. The central contradiction in the Singapore case is that while Singapore has been known for being the progenitor of the Asian Values debate of the 1990s, which drew much from Confucian ideas, Singapore’s universities have never drawn inspiration from Confucianism and Asian Values in the same way other Asian universities have. The explanation is that the Asian Values debate was really a political project, rather than that pertaining to a deep-seated cultural identity. In any case, how one reconciles an understanding of this apparent contradiction lies at the root of case of hybridity in Singapore’s universities.