The metaphor of an 'education hub' was initially promoted as also a policy concept for reversing cross-border student flows to the West in both Malaysia and Singapore. The Singapore version of 'Asian education hub policy' represents a distinct economic policy model of higher education which has since also influenced the very Western contexts it…

The combination of neo-liberalism and the massification of higher education combined with the diminished public funds for higher education contributed to the rise of academic capitalism and entrepreneurship across higher education systems and institutions across the world. With the focus on human capital development and its contribution to…

Advertisements commissioned by official ministries make ideal sites for investigating how media discourses are informed by state ideologies. Teacher recruitment advertisements, in particular, may be seen mobilising an ideologically charged vision of teacher professionalism that is at once reductive and productive. This chapter critiques the…

In rapidly globalizing systems of schooling around the world, economic considerations have led to a push to impose neoliberal reforms in the field of education. Under this influence early childhood education and teacher education in Asia have increasingly become positioned as regulated markets governed by neoliberal policies, leading to peak…

In this article I first discuss how in Singapore the concept of meritocracy captures both elitist and egalitarian aspirations, and the ways in which its education policies have for a long time vacillated between these conflicting dimensions. I then argue that critical studies of meritocracy need to go beyond an understanding of the term as an…

Much has been written about globalization and the challenge of preparing young people for the new world of work and life in times of complexity and continuous change. However, few works have examined how globalization has and will continue to shape education in the East. This volume discusses education within the context of globalization and…

Purpose: This paper aims to trace the evolution of two initiatives--the direct subsidy scheme and independent schools initiative--their genesis, rationale, current form and take-up rate. It also analyses them as education reforms in terms of policymaking dynamics. The very notion of the term "privatization" will be examined.…

How much is hegemony and how much is self-determination in the higher education systems in Southeast Asia? This paper argues that while the question of centre and periphery is still relevant to the analysis of international university systems, the analytical frameworks from which it has arisen may lose viability in the long term. Southeast Asian…

Discusses the marketisation of education in Singapore since the mid-1980s. Describes and analyses two major manifestations of this phenomenon: encouragement of greater school autonomy and fostering of competition among schools. Argues that Singapore has a regulated market, which threatens to exacerbate the disparities between schools in terms of…

During the past decade, funding mechanisms for universities and technical education institutions and colleges have undergone massive restructuring in developed and developing countries alike. Governmental support has generally decreased, resulting in greater reliance on fee-based education or creation of privately sponsored engineering/technical…