Our Vice-Chancellor

Everyone tends to assume that the growth of international students will go on unfettered. But I am not sure that, when all is said and done, it is going to be quite that simple. I was brought to this conclusion by a recent visit to Singapore.

There, it is quite clear that a halt is being called to the growth of international-student numbers in Singaporean universities as a result of the concerns of the Singaporean population that they are not getting their fair share of university places. Singapore’s universities will be capped at the present level of international students while 2,000 new university places will be added for local students by 2015 (chiefly from the two new universities that will be opening soon), so that gradually the proportion of foreign students will come down from 18 percent to about 15 percent.

There is a fascinating moment when academics reflect upon their practices in ways that are not just emblematic but are clearly leading to real change in what the practice of being an academic actually means. I have been reminded of this fact twice recently as I have considered practices of teaching and research at a number of universities around the world.