Sat 28 Jun 2008
An Asian Partner?
Posted by Larry George under 1 at 11:45 am
Could this story about a Singapore university seeking a partner (and mentioning Williams by name) be part of the reason a large entourage of Williams employees, including President Schapiro and development officers, is reportedly in Asia?
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/STIStory_252307.html


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6 Responses to “An Asian Partner?”
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David says:
That link no longer works for me but this one does. Here are the key quotes:
Hmmm. I can’t imagine that Williams would provide meaningful “funding” for such a project and I doubt that we would ever increase the class size by 250. But I certainly could imagine an extensive “partnership” with NUS, at least at the level of Williams-in-Oxford and perhaps featuring a big increase in the number of Singaporean students at Williams.
Questions:
1) How many Singaporean students are at Williams now?
2) Does anyone have any sources at some of the other named schools?
3) NUS seems to be both a potential partner and a potential competitor. Despite being located in Asia, it seems that English is the official language of the university. True? Can anyone tell us more about NUS?
If you want Williams to be the best College in the world, then you need to have the best (English-speaking) students. Many (50? 100?) of those students will come from Asia. Don’t want them? Then you are in, more or less, the same position as the administrators who did not want (too many) Jews in elite schools 75 years ago.
Starting up a partnership with NUS (and other elite schools) seems like a great idea. I wish Morty and his “entourage” all the best.
June 28th, 2008 at 5:33 pmconcerned says:
I don’t believe that they are going to Singapore on this trip, so I doubt there are plans to set up a partnership with NUS.
June 28th, 2008 at 6:40 pmGlenn '11 in Singapore says:
1) There’s only me, and a few other students who have studied in Singapore at some time.
2) No.
3) Yes, English is the official working language, but a local pidgin is commonly used in informal situations. NUS is a large research university, and already has both a Faculty of Social Sciences and a Faculty of Science. I am very interested to see how a liberal arts college can exist under the umbrella of a research university, without turning into a CAS.
A few years ago, local authorities teamed up with Wharton to set up the Singapore Management University. This is something that SMU is very proud of, but there’re but a few mentions of it on the Wharton site. My guess is that this ‘partnership’ will be one in a similar vein, meaning it will be unlike the Williams-Oxford program. Williams will provide expertise and experience to set up the new LAC, since there really aren’t that many Singaporeans who’ve attended LACs, after which the new college will be locally-run.
June 29th, 2008 at 2:25 amlgeorge says:
concerned –
Do you have details on this trip? Do you know who’s involved? Where they’ve gone and why? Your comment implicitly confirms that there is a group trip underway, but we are in the dark about the details (which is why the article about NUS made me wonder…).
Does anyone know whether Williams officials and staff routinely go on this sort of trip?
June 29th, 2008 at 3:06 amFROSH/SOPH MOM says:
Here’s my theory, FWIW.
Possibly this trip is connected to the revamping of the Admissions process.
If, let’s say, many of the desirable Asian International students, are putting Williams on their application lists, but then opting for the schools with higher ‘name recognition’ (frustratingly, even after being accepted by Williams), then not only does that warrant the new look at the Application process, it might also justify a trip to Asia to ‘make connections’ and raise the Williams profile.
Given the expected drop-off in the U.S student demographic, this could be (just part of) ‘planning ahead’.
June 29th, 2008 at 1:48 pmhwc says:
Here is an earlier article from last November:
Sounds like the Singapore education folks are looking at a 4th university, modeled after the work-study/internship approach at Northeastern AND a small liberal arts college.
Mostly, it just sounds like Minister of Education likes to take nice junkets to US, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:07 pm