Singapore as a Global Schoolhouse: A Critical Review

Abstract

In 2002, the Ministry of Trade and Industry announced its ambitious plan for Singapore to become an education hub. The idea to transform Singapore into a ‘global schoolhouse’ was driven primarily by economic concerns. The plan was envisioned to entice foreign universities to establish branch campuses in Singapore; at the same time, it would also allow Singapore to position itself as an education destination, with a target of 150,000 international full-time students by 2015. The chapter is an instructive case study of an ‘entrepreneurial state’ (Ziguras and McBurnie in Governing cross-border higher education. Routledge, London, 2015) attempting to move into the ‘Third Generation’ of cross-border higher education (Knight in Internationalization of higher education and global mobility. Symposium Books, Oxford, 2014). It informs the international literature on international education in a number of ways. First, it highlights the ways in which cross-border higher education is primarily driven by pragmatic economic considerations. Secondly, the chapter illustrates the top-down nature of education policymaking. Thirdly, this chapter identifies the limits to this kind of policymaking and points out various factors that may thwart even the most well-laid of plans.