Two cultures and political divisions in education

 

It was reported that the National University of Singapore (NUS) had officially launched the College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS). https://news.nus.edu.sg/new-college-of-humanities-and.../

The object of the college is to introduce, what the report described, as enhanced undergraduate experience for students of the faculties of Science and Arts through interdisciplinary teaching and learning.

This report provoked a long discussion in a Whatsapp group that I am part of. Many saw this as a Liberal Arts programme. I thought I should share my responses on this Blog.
That is really the object of the merger.

Fusing together what C P Snow once described as two cultures - Arts and Science. It was a historical accident in education that separated them. 20th-century attempts to offer combined degrees was one attempt to fuse the two. In my university, we had Law and Engineering and other combinations across the two domains but these attempts did not integrate the faculties or disciplines.

Our universities, and it gives me no pleasure in saying this, have lost their direction and purpose. University leadership is made up of well-dressed mannequins that show no understanding of academic leadership, which is a responsibility to serve the needs of generations and the future of the nation.

The fusion occupies a central position in the agenda for the transformation of Higher Education that began at the beginning of this century in many universities, mainly in the US. This movement was significant enough for it to be reported in the headlines of the popular press.

We are left behind, not because we lag in academic talent but because of the divisive policies in this country that have forced the segmentation of many revered principles in education. Worse, we have made higher education in the model of rubber trees. Neatly lined, divided, and capable of producing only SMR - Standard Malaysian Rubber. Soft, pliable, and easily stacked.