Tactics of Interventions: Student Mobility and Human Capital Building in Singapore

Abstract

Hitherto, research on transnational higher education student mobility tended to narrowly present hard statistics on student mobility, analysing these in terms of ‘trends’ and the implication this has on policy and internationalizing strategies. What is missing from this ‘big picture’ is a close-up analysis of the micropolitics of student mobility in specific geographical contexts. Despite an expanding university sector in Singapore, there is a persistent trend of Singaporean students leaving the country for overseas study, posing a possible problem of brain drain. This paper presents a socio-politico analysis of student mobility and the attendant politics this has created for Singapore's human capital building. The Singapore case is instructive of how it manages its human capacity building vis-a-vis its outward-bound student mobility. Although there are ‘tactics of intervention’ in place, it remains to be seen how the Singaporean government tackles two national dilemmas that are related to the socio-politico consequences of student mobility.