Sex, rankings and policy change: policy entrepreneurship in Singapore’s higher education system

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article seeks to understand policy change in the context of Singapore’s higher education system. It does so by applying Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Approach to two cases of policy entrepreneurship. In doing so, this article finds that while the efforts of the policy entrepreneur in one case had given rise to substantial policy change, the policy entrepreneur in the second case was not able to generate policy change due to an impartial coupling of streams. In highlighting impartial coupling, this article seeks to understand how policy change may sometimes not occur, despite the efforts of a policy entrepreneur.