Yale-NUS (National University of Singapore) cancelled a course on dissent and resistance only 2 weeks before the course was to be offered. The cancellation called into question the degree to which an IBC (International Branch Campus) can offer courses that may be controversial in the local international context. Yale's President, Peter Salovey, raised concern about the cancellation and indicated that the dissent experience was a one-week out-of-class experience to allow students to actually meet with those who have been involved in democratic dissent in Asia.
The president of Yale later issued a statement that the decision to cancel the controversial course was internal to Yale-NUS and reflected critical judgment about the course design. He also asserted that there is a strong commitment to academic freedom at Yale-NUS and that it is "a model of innovation in liberal arts education in Asia."
Mira Seo, an associate professor of humanities and head of literature studies at Yale-NUS, indicated that the investigation into why the course was cancelled confirmed that no Singaporean governmental control was exercised. Seo asserted a essential point for international educators by saying that academic freedom, "works within an ecology of the larger political society, but does that mean if you do not have an identical political society with the same rights and protections as in the U.S., you can't have academic freedom? I think there are so many points along the spectrum. There's not one answer for that."
The instructor for the proposed Yale-NUS course, Alfian Sa'at, subsequently indicated that he made multiple revisions of the course and believed that cancellation based on risk concerns (among others) was the easiest way out of the difficult academic freedom question involved with the course content. Unfortunately, keeping the topic alive, Singapore's Minster of Education, Ong Ye Kung, delivered a speech during which he indicated that the government had concerns about the Yale-NUS course. He was reported as saying, "academic freedom cannot be carte blanche for anyone to misuse an academic institution for political advocacy."
Stay tuned, the comments by Singapore's Minister of Education is bound to elicit more reactions from Yale.
The president of Yale later issued a statement that the decision to cancel the controversial course was internal to Yale-NUS and reflected critical judgment about the course design. He also asserted that there is a strong commitment to academic freedom at Yale-NUS and that it is "a model of innovation in liberal arts education in Asia."
Mira Seo, an associate professor of humanities and head of literature studies at Yale-NUS, indicated that the investigation into why the course was cancelled confirmed that no Singaporean governmental control was exercised. Seo asserted a essential point for international educators by saying that academic freedom, "works within an ecology of the larger political society, but does that mean if you do not have an identical political society with the same rights and protections as in the U.S., you can't have academic freedom? I think there are so many points along the spectrum. There's not one answer for that."
The instructor for the proposed Yale-NUS course, Alfian Sa'at, subsequently indicated that he made multiple revisions of the course and believed that cancellation based on risk concerns (among others) was the easiest way out of the difficult academic freedom question involved with the course content. Unfortunately, keeping the topic alive, Singapore's Minster of Education, Ong Ye Kung, delivered a speech during which he indicated that the government had concerns about the Yale-NUS course. He was reported as saying, "academic freedom cannot be carte blanche for anyone to misuse an academic institution for political advocacy."
Stay tuned, the comments by Singapore's Minister of Education is bound to elicit more reactions from Yale.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.