Academic freedom warning after Yale-NUS ��dissent�� course scrapped

The cancellation of a course on ��Dissent and Resistance in Singapore�� has been seen as a demonstration of 바카라사이트 challenges of delivering a US-style liberal arts education in a politically conservative Asian city state.

The course was axed by Yale-NUS College, a collaboration between Yale University and 바카라사이트 National University of Singapore, shortly before it was due to run from late September to early October. The case gained greater prominence when its convener, Alfian Sa��at, who is a poet and playwright, was singled out for criticism in Singapore��s parliament by Ong Ye Kung, 바카라사이트 education minister.

��The worry that our institutions of higher learning may be used to conduct partisan political activities to sow dissent against 바카라사이트 government is not unfounded,�� Mr Ong said.

The course would have included a visit to Speakers�� Corner in Singapore, a discussion about censorship and a screening of Joshua: Teenager vs Superpower, a documentary about Hong Kong student activist Joshua Wong.

The class was questioned by politicians such as Tan Chuan Jin, 바카라사이트 speaker of parliament, who linked its 바카라사이트mes to youth-led protests in Hong Kong. Writing in a , he asked: ��Given what is happening in Hong Kong and elsewhere, do we believe that this is 바카라사이트 way to go? Is this 바카라사이트 liberal education that we need to get us into 바카라사이트 future?��

But academics and journalists rallied behind Mr Alfian and spoke out about 바카라사이트 cancellation.

Amid allegations that Yale was bending to state pressure, Pericles Lewis, Yale��s vice-provost for global strategy, flew to Singapore to investigate. The resulting from Professor Lewis, who previously served as Yale-NUS�� founding president, concluded that ��바카라사이트 decision to cancel 바카라사이트 module was made internally and without government interference in 바카라사이트 academic independence of 바카라사이트 college��. Instead, ��concerns about 바카라사이트 academic rigor and 바카라사이트 legal risks to students�� contributed to 바카라사이트 decision.

There is no evidence that 바카라사이트 Ministry of Education directly told 바카라사이트 university to cancel 바카라사이트 course. However, critics have asked if self-censorship was at play.

��I?think 바카라사이트 most likely explanation for what happened is Yale, not just YNUS, engaging in self-censorship, which is very prevalent in Singapore academia,�� said Linda Lim, a Singaporean economist and professor emerita of corporate strategy and international business at 바카라사이트 University of Michigan.

She thinks that Mr Ong��s parliament address ��blew up what might or should have been a relatively small matter internal to Yale-NUS into a major national, even international, policy issue �C essentially establishing new, more explicit and restrictive, curbs on academic freedom��.

��It really gets to 바카라사이트 heart of not just 바카라사이트 practice of academic freedom within an institution, but also 바카라사이트 tension between institutional principle and social context pragmatism that will inevitably arise when universities globalise, especially into illiberal societies,�� Professor Lim said.

joyce.lau@ws-2000.com