Teaching Asians to Think

Just saw a letter in the Straits Times Forum page entitled “Time ripe for a pan-Asian university,” which argues that in light of the blame game for the “Covid-19” and growing anti-Chinese sentiment (which affects non-China Chinese) in the West, it was time for Asians to produce a “Pan-Asian University.” The letter can be found at:

https://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letter-of-the-week-time-ripe-for-a-pan-asian-university

This letter also reminded me of a talk I attended that was conducted by Her Excellency, Ms. Kara Owen, the High Commissioner of the United Kingdom, a few months ago (back in the pre-Circuit Breaker days). In that talk, the High Commissioner acknowledged that Singapore had sent many students to the UK and said that she hoped that there would be more student interaction between the UK and Singapore with more UK students heading to study in Singapore.

Interestingly enough, the topic of universities is one of the classic cases of Westerners having more confidence in the future of Asia than Asians. I remember telling someone of South Asian decent what the British High Commissioner had said and his only reaction was “She must be mad, why would they want to come here when they have the best universities there.” This reaction is, sadly, not a lone one. As far as most Asians are concerned, the world’s best education remains Western.

To an extent, this is true. If you look at rankings of the world’s best universities, they are, with the exception of Oxford and Cambridge, inevitably American. A look at the Times Higher Education Ranking can be found at:

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best-universities/best-universities-world

These rankings are pretty entrenched and if you look at the normal Asian mindset, unlikely to change anytime soon. I look at Singapore as the prime example. We invest heavily in education. We are proud of our universities and we spend a lot of money on them. Yet, despite all our pride in our home-grown universities, our country is inevitably run by people who went to Oxbridge for a first degree and did an MBA in an American University.

There are of course, reasons for the dominance of Western Universities in the top ranks of the world’s best. For all the apparent issues with Western societies (think social unrest on American streets at the moment), they remain societies that are open to free expression and more importantly the free flow of ideas. America in particular has rolled out the welcome mat for the world’s best brains and allowed them to flourish. Furthermore, as in the case of America, there is a culture that encourages experimentation. Part of that culture includes a tolerance for failure, which remains an anathema to many Asian societies

For many Asian governments, there is also prestige in having people trained by the world’s best. Here in Singapore, we take pride in the fact that our top people have not just proven themselves at home but in world-renown places like Harvard, Cambridge and so on. Governments in places like China have also done the same.

Having said all that, the question remains – why can’t Asia produce a world-class university and why can’t we accept the idea that people from the West might want to come to study in this part of the world.

The economics are certainly making Asia a more attractive place to be. For all it’s faults, China is the world’s second largest and most dynamic economy and other Asian countries are also following suite. Business interest in the West has certainly become more focused on Asia. I remember, when Ogilvy hired Tham Khai Meng as its global creative head. While the local media made a song and dance about the first Singaporean to be a global creative head of a major ad agency, there was also another person who got promoted, which was Miles Young, who became CEO. Mr. Young cut his teeth in Asia-Pacific.

A major ad agency thought it was important to fill its key positions with people with Asian experience because it saw that this was where the future consumers would be. However, are Asians being more than just copycats of a Western Mind?

Developing a great university would be the right start to proving that the answer is no. There are positive signs. I think of John Chambers, former CEO of Cisco Systems singing the praise of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). I think of the efforts of Singapore’s Universities to create a start up system in the same way that Stanford did around Silicon Valley (as a matter of disclosure, I am working for NTU’s start up and commercialization arm and I have worked for the IIT Alumni).

However, more needs to b done. Asian societies will need to encourage greater innovation, which means a culture that allows experimentation, failure and questioning of established rules. The money is there to spend on research but cultures need to match. Think of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), which has the full financial backing of Saudi Aramco, the world’s most profitable company. The facilities are wonderful and its hired famous names but has the culture created innovation and great research?  

Admittedly, I didn’t shine in university but if you look at what universities do, you’ll see that they are the bedrock of producing an innovative and prosperous economy. America has ruled the world in just about every sphere. It has most of the world’s best research universities. Surely that cannot be a coincidence. Instead of sending students there, most Asian governments could do well to ask what makes American universities so good and to replicate it within. There’s no reason why there can’t be a great Asian university.