Education Commons^™

A Design Thinking Odyssey: Measuring And Documenting Graduate Learning Outcomes In The Co-Curricular Space, Alvin Sim, Paulin Tay Straughan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Co-curricular experiences should be warranted a fair amount of attention in higher education, particularly for their ability to help students develop real-world employability skills and a platform for them to critically reflect upon and expand their perspectives. These are crucial in developing the future-ready graduate – the type of graduate the Singapore Management University (SMU) strives to nurture. Yet, the authors have discovered that many students go from one activity to another without understanding what they can actually be getting out of these activities and how each activity connects to life after university. This has led the authors to seek …

Up Close And Personal With Hugh Edmiston: Engineering Smu Towards Growth And Excellence, Hugh Edmiston

Oral History Collection

So what can a chartered engineer from the United Kingdom tell us about our aspirations to contribute to growth in Asia, as a young university in Singapore? As I found out…plenty. And then some. Meet SMU Senior Vice-President (Administration) Hugh Edmiston, who joined us just as COVID-19 hit our shores (“Little did I know there was a global pandemic on the horizon when I moved!”); and read on to learn more about his multiple roles and responsibilities in SMU as he drives our growth in Asia. This interview was published in the June 2021 edition of SMU CIRCLE.

The Influence Of Tertiary Education Disciplines On Self-Construals And Conflict Management Tendencies, Sheila Xi Rui Wee, Wan Yee Choo, Chi-Ying Cheng

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

While cultural difference on self-construal are well-documented, how acculturation to a new cultural environment could change an individual’s self-construal remains under-explored. In this research, how tertiary education disciplines could be associated with the endorsement of self-construals which, in turn, affect students’ conflict management tendencies were explored. Study 1 revealed that across the United States and Singapore, college students from business and social science disciplines exhibited the trend of endorsing more independent and interdependent self-construal respectively, regardless of the different dominant self-construals in the two countries. Study 2 explored how tertiary education disciplines is associated with individuals’ conflict management tendencies via …

Teaching In The Right Context: Textbook Supply Program, Language, And Vocabulary Ability In Vietnam, Tomoki Fujii, Maki Nakajima, Sijia Xu

Research Collection School Of Economics

While past two decades have witnessed a remarkable educational progress in Vietnam, ethnic minority children consistently lagged behind ethnic majority children in academic performance. The government of Vietnam has stepped up efforts to assist ethnic minority students in their learning by lowering the linguistic and cultural barriers they face. Among such efforts is the textbook supply program, and we examine its impact on the learning of children proxied by vocabulary test. We apply difference-in-differences estimation to four rounds of the Young Lives data between 2006 and 2015 in order to investigate how the textbook supply program narrowed the gap between …

An Exploration Into Key Roles In Making Project-Based Learning Happen: Insights From A Case Study Of A University, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow, Shankararaman, Venky, Kevin Koh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Purpose: One of the main obstacles facing project-based learning (PBL) adoption relates to a lack of understanding by teachers and students in the roles they are required to play in the learning process. This study aims to address this obstacle, so as to better promote regular adoption of PBL pedagogy in educational institutions. Design/methodology/approach: The strategy was to undertake an in-depth case study of PBL courses taught in UNI-X’s undergraduate curriculum. The case study approach is particularly appropriate for this exploratory study because it allows to capture the organizational dynamics of the phenomenon better and also its ability to explain …

Enhancing Cultural Intelligence And Digital Literacy In Accounting Education: Insights From A University’S Global Student Consulting Programme, Clarence Goh, Yuanto Kusnadi, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Recent literature has advocated for the use of project based learning to engage students in active learning. This study examines how students’ learning of cultural intelligence and digital literacy are enhanced through an overseas project-based learning (PBL) programme at a Singapore University (UNIS), called the UNIS-XO pedagogy. Specifically, this study provides a framework through which students, faculty members, and industry partner can collaborate through consulting programs with the aim to provide feasible recommendations to the clients. Our findings suggest that an experiential PBL with an overseas client is an important learning experience through which students can strengthen their digital literacy …

Up Close And Personal With Smu President Prof Lily Kong, Lily Kong

Oral History Collection

On the occasion of SMU’s coming of age (21st anniversary), alumnus Terence Quek (MCM 2013) 'Zoomed' SMU President Professor Lily Kong, and through a host of questions discovered her leadership challenges, why she ran 248km, and how she plans to keep SMU “glowing”.The interview was published in the February 2021 edition of SMU CIRCLE.

Enabling Singapore's Youths To Adapt In An Era Of Climate Change, Thomas Menkhoff, Mark Chong, Benjamin Gan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Nudging them towards more eco-friendly behavioural habits is arguably a feasible approach to build greater climate resilience.

Singapore Management University Report To Stakeholders 2020 - 2021, Singapore Management University

Report to Stakeholders

Last year, the profound impact of the Covid-19 pandemic reaffirmed that the three strategic priorities we had identified for SMU and the wider community – digital transformation, sustainable living and growth in Asia – are the right priorities. As the world learns to manage Covid-19, focus must be given to sustainable living. Here SMU can contribute to driving solutions to manage climate change and sustainable city living.

Lee Kong Chian School Of Business Year In Review 2019-2020, Singapore Management University

SMU Corporate Reports

We all knew that 2020 would be an extraordinary year for the Lee Kong Chian School of Business. It marks our 20th anniversary of our first entering cohort of undergraduates! What no one imagined was that this year would also be extraordinary because of the global pandemic. Despite it being a challenging year, it is safe to say that we have come through the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in reasonably good shape.

Rapid Transition Of A Technical Course From Face-To-Face To Online, Swapna Gottipatti, Venky Shankaraman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Just like most universities around the world, the senior management at Singapore Management University decided to move all courses to a virtual, online, synchronous mode, giving instructors a very short notice period—one week—to make this transition. In this paper, we describe the challenges, practical solutions adopted, and the lessons learnt in rapidly transitioning a face-to-face Master’s degree course in Text Analytics and Applications into a virtual, online, course format that could deliver a quality learning experience.

Getting Undergraduates Ready For China’S Belt And Road Initiative (Bri) Through An Overseas Experiential Learning Project, China And The World: Ancient And Modern Silk Road, Andrew Chin, Thomas Menkhoff, Hans-Dieter Evers, Hoong Hui Daniel Gn, Kevin Koh, Chester Wey Lee, Patrick Loh, Linda Low, Sebastian Tan, Teng Seng Teo, Natalie Yap

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this paper, we explain how an experiential learning course and study tour to Gansu Province (People’s Republic of China) enabled undergraduates at the Singapore Management University (SMU) to acquire 21st-century competencies and higher-order thinking skills by analyzing and evaluating specific aspects of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and China–Singapore (Chongqing) Connectivity Initiative — New International Land–Sea Trade Corridor (CCI-ILSTC) with emphasis on developing viable Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies aimed at selling Gansu produce in four Southeast Asian markets. We share how the course was designed to support the attainment of key learning goals and discuss how we turned pedagogical …

Country Report: The Teaching Of Philosophy In Singapore Schools, Steven Burik, Matthew Hammerton, Sovan Patra

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Singapore’s education system is widely regarded as one of the best in the world. In this report, we will focus on education at the primary, secondary, and junior college levels, and will not discuss the education offered in polytechnics (vocational colleges) and universities. We will also focus exclusively on Singapore’s public school system, which Singapore citizens are required to attend unless they are granted a special exemption. In addition to public schools, there are also international schools, which cater to the relatively large expatriate population in Singapore and typically offer a curriculum leading to the IB diploma. All public schools …

Enhancing Students’ Global Competence Through International Business Study Missions, Mark Chong, Benjamin Gan, Thomas Menkhoff

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article shares how an Asian University enhanced students’ global competence through international business study missions (BSMs). More specifically, it focuses on (i) how the design of these BSMs enabled “deep” learning beyond industry tourism and (ii) how 21st century competencies such as ‘global competence’ can be acquired through participation in short-term, faculty-led study missions.Using the case study approach, it critically analyses the learning goals and objectives, design decisions, implementation details and learning outcomes underlying three business study missions led by three instructors from the same university to the USA (New York), Germany (Berlin and Stuttgart), and South Korea (Seoul).The …

Students Can Still Assimilate Different Cultures Via Virtual Learning, Yuanto Kusnadi, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The year 2020 has been unique and exceptional. The Covid-19 pandemic has posed significant challenges to economies and societies across the world. Universities too had to pivot and adapt, with lessons and examinations moved online, for example. One of the challenges faced by universities is how to equip their students with the relevant skillset of gaining exposure to different cultures through internships and exchanges when international borders are largely closed. To overcome the constraint posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, a recent initiative by the Singapore Management University (SMU), called SMU-X Overseas (virtual), has allowed students to work on real-world projects …

Alternative Education Spaces And Pathways: Insights From An International Christian School In China, Menusha De Silva, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The nascent scholarship on geographies of alternative education focuses on alternative education spaces, most located in the UK, that resist and/or negotiate neoliberal restructuring of education, some of which cater to socially marginalised groups. In contrast, through an ethnographic focus on an underground Christian international school in China, we examine an alternative education space that responds to parents’ aspirations for their children to be inculcated with global cultural capital, Chinese values and Christian beliefs. These aspirations are not fulfilled in mainstream state schools or international schools in China, but are demanded by parents looking for a “superior” set of skills …

Using Data Analytics To Predict Students Score, Nang Laik Ma, Gim Hong Chua

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Education is very important to Singapore, and the government has continued to invest heavily in our education system to become one of the world-class systems today. A strong foundation of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) was what underpinned Singapore's development over the past 50 years. PISA is a triennial international survey that evaluates education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students who are nearing the end of compulsory education. In this paper, the authors used the PISA data from 2012 and 2015 and developed machine learning techniques to predictive the students' scores and understand the …

Covid-19 And The 2019/20 International Moots Season, Siyuan Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This is the sixth annual review of Singapore’s performance in notable international moot competitions. This season will of course be known as a highly disrupted one, beginning with the Hong Kong unrest that barred some teams from participating in LAWASIA (for which Singapore has been to the last four championship) and COVID-19 that led to the outright cancellation of various Grand Slam moots including the Jessup, International Criminal Court, and Frankfurt (for which Singapore has regularly featured in the championship). Smaller niche moots, such as the International Maritime Law Arbitration and Private Law competitions, were also not spared and either …

企业如何与大学合作开发网上业务？[How Companies Cooperate With Universities To Develop Online Business?], Yuanto Kusnadi

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 And Management Education: Reflections On Challenges, Opportunities, And Potential Futures, Steve Brammer, Timothy Clark

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

COVID-19 is having profound impacts on tertiary education globally. Border closures, cuts to aviation capacity, mandatory quarantine on entering a country, restrictions on mass gatherings, and social distancing all pose challenges to higher education (HE) institutions. Business Schools (BSs) have larger and more internationally diverse cohorts of students and staff, generating particular challenges, but also often have more mature digital and remote education capabilities that enable responses to COVID-19. Therefore, exploring emergent evidence on how BSs are likely to be affected by COVID-19 over the short, medium, and long term is of significant importance to our community. In this commentary, …

The Transnational Frontiers Of Japanese Education: Multiculturalism, Cosmopolitanism, And Global Isomorphism, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Japanese education system today faces three transnationally created challenges. The first is multiculturalism. Given an increasing number of students whose parents are either migrants or naturalized citizens, the government needs to rethink the nature of public schools, which have traditionally catered to ethnic majority students, and explore how to make them culturally more inclusive. The second is cosmopolitanism. Although cosmopolitanism is regarded as a desirable disposition and competency in a globalizing world, the government has difficulty incorporating it into the education system that continues to function as a central vehicle of nation-building. The third is global isomorphism. While world …

Competing For Academic Labor: Research And Recruitment Outside The Academic Center, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Meng-Hsuan Chou, Jue Wang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Increasing competition among research universities has spurred a race to recruit academic labor to staff research teams, graduate programs, and laboratories. Yet, often ignored is how such efforts entail negotiating a pervasive hierarchy of universities, where elite institutions in the West continue to attract the best students and researchers across the world. Based on qualitative interviews with 59 Singapore-based faculty, this paper demonstrates how migrant academics in competitive universities outside the West take on the burden of seeking other ways of attracting academic labor into their institutions, often resorting to ethnic and transnational ties to circumvent limits imposed by a …

Digitalisation Of Smes In Singapore: An Institute Of Higher Learning-Enterprise Partnership Model, Benjamin Huan Zhou Lee, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

An SME had commissioned a team of five accounting students to develop a forecasting model using analytics. The student team was from the Accounting Analytics Capstone (SMU-X) course offered by the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University (SMU), in January 2018. For this project, the student-consultants applied their knowledge of accounting data and analytics, combining it with a multidisciplinary approach to solve real-world complex financial analytical problems that have real-time consequences.

Developing Online Business Strategy With Millennials Through Partnership With University, Yuanto Kusnadi, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a significant shift in shopping behaviour from offline to online among Singaporean consumers. According to data from data analytics firm Nielsen, 37 per cent of Singaporean consumers have increased online shopping activities since the COVID-19 outbreak. This shift towards online shopping, food delivery and e-groceries may persist beyond the COVID-19 period. While the increase in online shopping has benefited online stores, many businesses who do not yet have an online presence or have not been paying much attention to conducting sales online were caught off-guard during the circuit breaker period which has resulted in …

Students’ Conceptions Of Bell Curve Grading Fairness In Relation To Goal Orientation And Motivation, Lynette Tan, Brenda Yuen, Wee Ling Loo, Christiaan Prinsloo, Mark Gan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The controversial bell curve has received considerable attention in recent years as a grade distribution tool where “norm-referenced grading involves comparing students’ performances with each other” rather than where they fall on a “predefined continuum of quality” (Brookhart, 2013, p. 258). Despite educators’ deep concern on the fairness of bell curve grading, there is little research done on students’ conceptions of that grading system in higher education. This correlational study uses open-ended questions and three instruments to measure students’ conceptions of the fairness of bell curve grading, their goal orientations, and motivation. Undergraduates from three universities participated in the survey …

The Covid-19 Challenge: An Update From Singapore, Richard Raymond Smith

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

While Singapore was the location of the film Crazy Rich Asians, a more current view of the city-state might be better described as Crazy Vigilant Singaporeans! The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our world, yet the preparation, rapid response, and overall vigilance of the universities and the government in Singapore is worth noting. In fact, the World Health Organization has stated that Singapore is the “Gold Standard” for managing a pandemic. From the view of a business school in Singapore, the challenge can be viewed in phases.

Apply Liberally: Towards A Model Of Liberal Management Education, Howard Thomas

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Howard Thomas argues the case for integrating the liberal arts into management education so that the existing curricula emphasis on technological and analytical acumen is balanced with skills of critical thinking and ethical intelligence necessary for managerial judgment.

School Of Law Annual Report 2019, Singapore Management University

SMU Corporate Reports

It is my pleasure to present you the SMU School of Law’s Annual Report for 2019. This Report highlights all the exciting things that the School has done and the achievements of our faculty members, students and alumni in the past year. As a Law School, our mission is to produce meaningful and impactful research, provide relevant legal training to our students, and apply our expertise to serve the community

Singapore Management University Report To Stakeholders 2019 - 2020, Singapore Management University

Report to Stakeholders

The title, "Strength, Unity, Resilience, Purpose", reflects how the University has responded as "One SMU" to the challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. Whilst putting the safety and wellbeing of students, faculty and staff first, SMU pivoted quickly to ensure that it continued to fulfil its role in nurturing global citizens for tomorrow through transformative education, addressing societal challenges through cutting-edge research, and engaging with the city and world to make meaningful impact in a time of crisis.

The theme of the report also echoes Professor Lily Kong's inaugural President's State of the University Address in September 2019. In this …

Commentary: What Lies Ahead? Considering The Future Of A ‘New’ Vietnamese Higher Education, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this commentary, Ortiga discusses two main tensions in how the authors in this volume portray the future of Vietnamese higher education. The first tension is the issue of autonomy or how universities must redefine their purpose and role in Vietnamese society as the state loosens its monopoly over higher education. Meanwhile, the second tension is the issue of privatisation or whether for-profit corporations and private agencies should play an increasing role in providing higher education services in the country. In reflecting on the future, Ortiga compares the case of Vietnam to higher education systems in neighbouring countries like the …