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Comment on this article
Yale’s Singapore Venture
The Alumni Discuss
November/December 2010
I support (almost whole-heartedly) the Yale-NUS project and consider that the faculty and administration people who worked to develop the project, and to explain it to the rest of us, have done a superb job.
The project strikes me as excellent for all of the reasons included in the September Prospectus, plus two perhaps obvious points:
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The quality of Singapore as a largely English-language trading-post and city-state at the nexus of India, Southeast Asia, and China uniquely positions Singapore for its aspiration to be an innovative and important center for Asian education. Singapore’s disciplined, well-educated, and highly motivated population is a marvelous asset. It seems to me, therefore, that the Yale-NUS project has a better-than-usual chance to succeed; and Yale’s globalization drive and its international reputation most probably will benefit a great deal from it.
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Singapore has been closely watched for decades by China’s liberalizing elements, most notably Deng Xiaoping, who considered Singapore a model of economic development under firm political control. A successful Yale project in Singapore, therefore, will likely benefit Yale’s already good reputation for educational leadership in China, where Yale has made appropriately major investments and ought to have a bright future of quietly guiding China towards responsible global citizenship.
My only reservations about the project are the opportunity costs for Yale-at-New-Haven from significant administration and faculty time, attention, and emotional commitment that will have to be directed to Yale-NUS. The Yale brand must somehow be spread globally without essential dilution at home. How to do that?
Maybe alumni, some of whom are already well-branded by Yale, could help. The Yale Corporation wisely has alumni members, and Yale pays a good deal of attention to its alumni. The results seem to be good for both Yale and its alumni. The formative Yale-NUS might benefit from some Yale alumni involvement. They all know Yale; some know Singapore; some know management and teaching, some have already well-defined global outlooks. It should be possible for Yale to put them to good use in the NUS project.
Charles Schmitz ’60, ’63JD |
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