Think global, think local: The changing landscape of higher education and the role of quality assurance in Singapore

Abstract

This article examines how the Singaporean state has reformed the higher education sector in order to co-opt different political and economic agendas at both the global and local levels, utilising quality assurance as a regulatory process of control. The core argument is that quality assurance has been used as an instrument to reshape the higher education landscape in Singapore. The article begins with a review of the literature on the role of the Singaporean state in higher education. Next, it reviews how the Global Schoolhouse initiative was developed and implemented and how public and private higher education sectors were audited. The article then analyses the establishment of a new quality assurance mechanism for private higher education in 2009. Finally, the article suggests that this new regulatory regime exemplifies the importance of political factors in the implementation of neoliberal managerialism in higher education.