Proportion of Tenured and Tenure-track University Faculty Members who are Singaporeans

Mr Seah Kian Peng asked the Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) (a) what is the current proportion of tenured and tenure-track faculty members who are Singaporeans in NUS, NTU and SMU; and (b) what was the proportion 10 years ago.

Ten years ago, in 2007, 46% of the tenured and tenure-track faculty members at the National University (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU) were Singaporeans. In 2017, the proportion is about 40%. The Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) do not have a tenure system but the proportion of Singaporeans among faculty is much higher in SIT and SUSS.

We must ensure there is a strong core of Singaporean academics in our autonomous universities (AUs), even as they strive to recruit the best talents from Singapore or overseas, based on merit, to deliver world-class education and conduct high-quality research.

To do so, our AUs actively look out for Singaporean academics who are working overseas. We launched the Singapore Teaching and Academic Research Talent Scheme in 2015 to encourage more young Singaporeans to pursue an academic career. Under this scheme, we have awarded close to 80 undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships to Singaporeans who are interested in academia. The three AUs awarded 260 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) scholarships from 1990 to 2014.