[sgbuffett]

Below is a speech by LKY on 10 Feb1978:

Nanyang University’s fatal error in adjusting to this drop in students was to lower standards in order to keep up the size of the student population. It became so bad that for Malay Studies, students who had been rejected by University of Singapore, with as low as 20 points for HSC, were admitted into Nanyang University in 1969-72 when the minimum for other Arts subjects were

ADDRESS BY THE PRIME MINISTER, MR. LEE KUAN YEW, TO
THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, NANYANG UNIVERSITY, ON FRIDAY, 10 FEBRUARY 1978

Bilingualism and Higher Education in Singapore

QUALITY OF CHINESE LANGUAGE STUDENTS INTO NANTAH

From 1956 to 1967, two years after separation of Singapore from Malaysia, Nantah had good students from all the best Chinese middle schools, not only in Singapore, but also from Malaysia and Indonesia. The early batches were probably the best.

From 1960, PSC started giving scholarships to Chinese middle school graduates to universities abroad. They were the top 20 students each year from the Chinese stream. From 1960 also, the University of Singapore started to admit Chinese middle school graduates. They were invariably the better students. The result was that Nanyang University lost the best Singapore students from the Chinese stream. By 1963, 100 good Chinese middle school HSC graduates went abroad and to the University of Singapore. By 1977, 343 had gone abroad or to University of Singapore.

Meanwhile, the number of good students who came from Malaysia and Indonesia diminished. These countries had changed their educational policies, and their students did not have sufficient command of the Chinese language to enter Nanyang University. Perhaps even those who had enough Chinese language command had decided to seek university education in English abroad.

Nanyang University’s fatal error in adjusting to this drop in students was to lower standards in order to keep up the size of the student population. It became so bad that for Malay Studies, students who had been rejected by University of Singapore, with as low as 20 points for HSC, were admitted into Nanyang University in 1969-72 when the minimum for other Arts subjects were

32 points. And they all graduated with Nanyang University degrees! When the government drew the attention of the University Council to this deplorable practice, the Malay Studies Department was allowed to phase out in the academic year 1972/73.

Had Nanyang University responded differently, and kept at least the same minimum entry requirements as University of Singapore, Nanyang University would have become smaller by one-quarter to one-third. But its standing and reputation in Singapore and abroad would have remained high. By admitting and passing sub-standard students, Nanyang University lowered the standing and the employment prospects of its good students and so accelerated the flow of good students into University of Singapore.

In 1974, a Joint University Admissions Selection Committee was established for University of Singapore and Nanyang University to maintain minimum standards for admission. Even so, in order that Nanyang University will not have too few students too suddenly, minimum points for admission were slightly lower in Nanyang University than in University of Singapore: