BOARD OF TERTIARY EDUCATION

Mr Yeo Choo Kok asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education whether it is considered necessary to set up a Board of Tertiary Education to be solely in charge of the two universities, the Institute of Education, the Singapore Polytechnic and the Ngee Ann Technical College so that the curricular planning, academic development, use of facilities, staffing and the allocation and distribution of students in the five institutes can be better co-ordinated and complemented in order to prevent wastage and unnecessary duplication or overlapping.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education (Dr Goh Keng Swee): Sir, the Ministry does not consider it necessary to set up a Board of Tertiary Education to be solely in charge of the two Universities, the Institute of Education, the Singapore Polytechnic and the Ngee Ann Technical College. This step is not only unnecessary but it is not likely to achieve the objectives that the hon. Member has in mind.

So far as admission of students is concerned, there has been established since 1978 a joint admission board which considers applications from students who passed their 'O' level for entry into Junior Colleges, Pre-U Centres, Singapore Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Technical College and the Industrial Training Board. Admissions into the University of Singapore and Nanyang University are considered by a Joint Universities Admission Selection Committee established in 1974. The processing of applications to institutions of higher studies helps to maintain the standards of admission as well as fairness in the award of places which must be decided solely on the basis of merit, given students' preferences.

The hon. Member seems to be worried about "wastage and unnecessary duplication or overlapping". I assume he is referring to courses offered at these institutions. There are, of course, courses common both to Nanyang and Singapore Universities and to Ngee Ann and the Polytechnic. For instance, both Universities teach Mathematics, Political Science, Statistics, Economics, Geography and History in the Arts and Social Science Departments. In Science subjects, Chemistry, Physics and Applied Physics are common to both Universities. I do not know whether the Member believes that these subjects should be farmed out to one or the other of the Universities. I am not certain what merit there is in this idea, but serious problems of dislocation will arise for both staff and students. The two Universities have enough problems on their hands at the moment, and now is not the time to consider further innovations unless these have obvious merit.

Much the same of what I said applies to courses common to the Singapore Polytechnic and the Ngee Ann Technical College.

It is not feasible to have a single authority to take charge of Universities, Polytechnics and the Institute of Education, as well as the Industrial Training Board. The levels of instruction, the qualifications of students, the objectives of these institutions are so varied that combining them into one organisation is likely to create more problems than it solves.