Baey Yam Keng: Different Peaks of Excellence

Written by: Baey Yam Keng | Article first appeared on his personal Facebook page here. 

Different Peaks of Excellence
(translation of my column in MyPaper, 28 Aug 2014)

On Monday, I was invited to present awards at the SIM-RMIT graduation ceremony. The ceremony for more 3500 graduates was divided into eight sessions over a period of four days.

The graduates, both full-time and part-time students, were from different courses, including accounting, economics, marketing, logistics, communications and design. Other local universities do offer similar courses and logically, most locals would prefer to enrol in public universities, such as the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and Singapore Management University, where tuition fees are cheaper. According to some graduates, they enrolled in the more expensive private universities because their academic results were not good enough to be accepted by local universities. These students have no alternative but to enrol in private universities or study abroad.

Although private universities cost more, most parents are willing to tighten their belts to put their children through university for the sake of their future and to fulfil their own aspirations. They all think that a degree would ensure greater security for their children’s future career prospects.

SIM-RMIT is a good institution, having been in Singapore the last 27 years, and produced almost 30,000 graduates. However, there are numerous universities in the world and their standards and reputations can vary greatly. One must be cautious choosing a university. In addition to ensuring that the course meets one’s interests and needs, one must also verify whether the degree awarded is recognized, and check out the employment prospects of its graduates. Otherwise, the university course would waste one’s money and time.

The government understands the desire of Singaporeans for university degrees and in recent years, has set up new universities. By 2020, 40% of each cohort would have the opportunity to study in our public universities.

However, we all know of graduates in other countries who cannot find work at home and have to go abroad to earn a living. Some are even unable to apply what they learnt and with no better alternatives, ended up working as domestic helpers. Therefore, even as the government meets the people’s aspirations for university education, it has to prevent the oversupply of graduates, ensure sustained economic growth and create good employment opportunities.

Among the new public universities, Singapore Institute of Technology was specifically set up to cater to students from diploma backgrounds. Many polytechnic graduates aspire for university degrees, indeed many SIM-RMIT graduates were from the polytechnics. While studying in school, one should naturally do one’s best and try to pursue higher education.

However, schools are not the only place where one can obtain knowledge. At this year’s National Day Rally, the Prime Minister took pains to highlight how several ITE and polytechnic students continue their learning and education at work, proving that even with basic technical qualifications, one can enjoy good career prospects as long as one is willing to work hard and do well at work.

One of the SIM-RMIT award winners told me that she chose to work first after she completed her diploma education. Only after she has discovered the field she is most interested in did she enrol in university.

This is a mature way of thinking. Not everyone is suited for or needs to go to university. I have seen cases of a herd mentality in going after a university degree, where people force themselves to study a course they are not interested in and ended up with poor results because they have difficulty concentrating on or coping with the course. It would have been better to spend the time to explore and develop one’s strengths and talents.