Abstract
Students from the three main universities in Singapore were surveyed in the third quarter 2008 to assess their perceptions and knowledge of Europe/the European Union. This survey complements and expands upon that done in 2006 by the National Centre for Research on Europe (NCRE) which was supported by Asia–Europe Foundation. The student survey showed that this important age and education cohort had a middling to low assessment of the EU in its importance for Singapore, an assessment which was much lower than the objective view of the relation (in terms of trade and the EU as a dialogue partner) would warrant. The sources of this perception were examined, and it was found that there was no immediate correlation between level of assessment of Europe/the EU and: gender, nationality, year of study, subject of study or frequency of accessing the local media for international news. Therefore, such perceptions can be assumed to derive from sporadic, ad hoc intangible contacts and fleeting impressions rather than through formal education, the media and specific, focussed and localised EU-related outreach programmes.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The European Union Centre in Singapore, established mid-2008, is a joint venture of NUS and NTU, with the large part of its funding from the European Commission and then from the two universities.
Hence, at NTU: canteen A (open study area) 53; canteen A itself 92; canteen B 131; at NUS: Arts canteen 101; Engineering 45; Business 46; Yusof Ishak House (Students’ Union) 40; Science 102; Bukit Timah campus (Law Faculty and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy) 23; SMU: Concourse 68. For amusement’s sake only really, one might report that there was no overall leader among the canteens with regard to the greatest objective knowledge about the European Union. Students at the NUS Bukit Timah campus (all in Law) led in three of the seven main objective question categories and were towards the bottom of the list for placing the eastern edge of the European Union too far west. Yet they were displaced in other categories by a range of other canteens, including NTU A and the NUS Arts canteen. Of course, there is no absolute correlation between eating in a designated canteen and a student’s major; to quote Christopher Marlowe, a student is, after all, a “corpus naturale” and therefore “mobile”.
A figment, of course, of the researcher’s imagination.
In the NCRE–ASEF survey, respondents in the 55–64 age band—for whom the British period could be a foundational memory—were more than twice as likely to place the importance of the UK in the top category than those in the 18–24 range (46.4% as opposed to 21.2%). Such a finding lends weight to the proposition that surveys of young adults are instructive of their basic ideological assumptions, retained (of course with modifications) throughout life.
At a couple of locations [NUS Yusof Ishak House (50% Singaporeans/Malaysians) and NUS Science canteen (65%)], the figure for “locals” was much lower, and conversely, at the SMU Concourse and the NUS Arts and Business canteens, the percentage of Singaporeans/Malaysians much higher (86%+).
Almost a quarter (23.5%) of the Europeans chose Mozart’s “Requiem”, which one might, if one were so minded, consider an ironic comment.
This lack of a common “idea of Europe”, it should be noted in passing, is not that remarkable in the EU either. The Eurobarometer 69 (June 2008) found that 44% of Europeans thought that “there are no common European values, only global western values” (that is, that there was little specific to Europe that might single out some European way or Weltanschauung, if this altmodisch German word can be permitted here) and only 54% thought that EU states were close to each other in terms of shared values (European Commission 2008, pp. 57 and 58).
This module, EU 1101E: The Making of Contemporary [2008 and after: Modern] Europe, is a popular course (average of some 300 students per academic year) which is run through the History department.
Source: Economic Survey of Singapore Second Quarter 2008 (Singapore: Ministry of Trade and Industry, 2008), p. 48.
This point corroborates that made, using different data, by the current author and Ma Shaohua in their chapter in a volume on the NCRE–ASEF findings (Holland M et al. 2007).
Source: International Enterprise Singapore Market Info.
A 1996 European Parliament decision (No 719/96/EC) notes that “the perception of Europe in the world is largely determined by the position and strength of its cultural values.
European Commission (2008), p. 61
Pre-university institutions offering what in England are ‘A’ levels, that is, the last 2 years of an American/Canadian high school education, but extending to what would there be grade 13.
References
European Commission (2008) Standard Eurobarometer 69. pp 57, 58 and 61 (Spring)
Holland M et al (eds) (2007) The EU through the Eyes of Asia: media. Public and Elite Perceptions in China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Thailand. ASEF, Singapore
Thompson EC, Thianthai C (2008) Attitudes and awareness toward ASEAN: findings of a ten nation survey. ASEAN Foundation, Jakarta
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendix
Appendix
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Turner, B. The perceptions of the European Union among tertiary education students in Singapore. Asia Eur J 7, 225–240 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10308-009-0226-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10308-009-0226-2