Promoting Teaching Excellence in Institutes of Higher Education

Ms Ellen Lee asked the Minister for Education in view of the recently published "The Higher Education World University Rankings 2011-12" where NUS and NTU are ranked 41st and 123rd in the teaching component (a) whether the Ministry will consider forming a Council for Teaching Excellence in Higher Education to promote and ensure teaching excellence in institutes of higher education; and (b) whether NUS and NTU aim to perform better.

Mr Heng Swee Keat: Our Autonomous Universities (AUs) are committed to providing high quality education for their students. Course curriculum are regularly reviewed for industry relevance and updated with relevant new knowledge. In hiring faculty members, the AUs also rigorously assess their ability on both teaching and research. As part of their efforts to continually improve the quality of their teaching, NUS and NTU have their own Centres for Teaching and Learning that conduct training programmes in pedagogy for their faculty members, and hold international conferences to share effective teaching and learning practices.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) also conducts quality assurance validation reviews to assess the performance of the AUs. These reviews cover areas including Teaching and Learning and are carried out by panels commissioned by MOE, comprising experienced and eminent local industry captains and international academics. Apart from studying the relevant data and papers, they also conduct interviews with faculty, students and other stakeholders.

International rankings are useful in providing a high-level comparison among disparate institutions in different countries, but are subject to regular methodological revisions and challenges in obtaining quality inputs in all areas. This is particularly so in the area of teaching, where assessments and comparisons are hard to do.

Nonetheless, there is always room to do better to raise the quality of teaching. Our universities will continue to seek improvements in this area, to create a more conducive learning experience for our students.

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