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shuwenteo
19-05-2011, 06:57 AM
For your information, Singapore's Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong studied at Williams College. Wang Lee Hom also studied there http://forum.brightsparks.com.sg/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

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Taken from Singapore's MOE report:
http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/fi...ec-summary.pdf (http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/files/2008/08/ceus-final-report-and-exec-summary.pdf)

Features of Liberal Arts Colleges

Focus on undergraduate teaching
14. Liberal arts colleges (LACs) do not offer graduate programmes. Faculty and resources are focused on undergraduate teaching and learning. This focus provides students with many opportunities not available to undergraduates in a larger comprehensive university. For example, undergraduate students in an LAC have the opportunity to participate in high-level research that would only be available to postgraduate students in a comprehensive university.

Developing critical thinking and love for learning
15. Liberal arts college students acquire a good foundation in Natural Sciences, Mathematics, Humanities and Social Sciences through a broad-based education. They are encouraged to think critically and to synthesise knowledge. This is further reinforced through the low student-to-faculty ratio. The close interaction between students and their professors, on- and off-campus and within a small college environment, instils in students a love for learning and knowledge.

16. Students are also given time and space to decide on their area of
specialisation. They are often able to design their own courses if these are lacking in the LAC?s offerings. With this nurturing and grounding, a high proportion of LAC graduates proceed to top graduate schools to pursue postgraduate degrees, e.g. in medicine and law.

Networks and collaborations
17. Due to their small enrolments, LACs collaborate with other institutions to share physical as well as academic resources. Potential partners include other LACs as well as larger universities. One example of such a network of partners is the Claremont Consortium, of which Pomona College, Harvey Mudd College and Claremont McKenna College are members. Each member in the Consortium has its own Board, management and finances, and over time would develop its own unique character and strengths. For example, Harvey Mudd College specialises in science and engineering, Pomona College focuses more on broad-based education, while Claremont McKenna College focuses on business and management courses. The close proximity of the member institutions enables cross-registration of courses by students across the member institutions. This arrangement also allows students to experience learning in their own small college setting, while living amongst a larger community of students. The extent of collaboration across different Consortiums varies. For example, the member institutions of the Five College Consortium (of which Amherst College is a member) mainly share library resources.

18. LACs also forge joint degree programmes with larger universities. For example, Williams College offers joint degree programmes with Columbia University, offering students the option to graduate within five years with two bachelor degrees ? one in liberal arts and one in another discipline, such as engineering.

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Check Colby-Sawyer College scholarships: Wesson Honors Scholarship, Founders Scholarship, Presidential Scholarship & Chargers Scholarship.

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ayjiahui
19-05-2011, 10:50 AM
how is this related to malaysian employers considering the bulk of the report is a Singaporean one?

shuwenteo
19-05-2011, 10:59 AM
how is this related to malaysian employers considering the bulk of the report is a Singaporean one?
LOL. They are closely related, aren't they? :P

ayjiahui
19-05-2011, 12:10 PM
i don't think so >.<

shuwenteo
19-05-2011, 04:56 PM
Straits Times: Why a liberal arts education is useful
By Kishore Mahbubani

ONE of the most stupid decisions I have made in my life also turned out to be one of the wisest decisions of my life. What was my most stupid decision? It was to give up studying economics and sociology at the National University of Singapore (NUS), repeat a year and start studying philosophy as a single subject. Friends and family thought I was committing an act of total folly by giving up one year of income and graduating a year later, and studying an impractical and 'useless' subject.

So why was it wise? Simple! We are moving into an era of great uncertainty. Frankly, no one has a clue about the nature of the new world order which is emerging. Experts are clueless. No one predicted the Lehman Brothers crisis of 2008. Many more such crises are forthcoming because we have never experienced the kinds of historical changes we are experiencing now.

And how does one prepare for uncertainty? The only way to do so is to take nothing for granted. We must learn to question every assumption in our minds. How does one acquire the facility to do this? The answer is a Western liberal arts education.

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Though I specialised only in philo-sophy, I imbibed the liberal arts culture of challenging and questioning assumptions. This habit of questioning assumptions did not stop when I graduated from NUS in 1971. Indeed, it has intensified over the years. And this habit of questioning gives me the confidence to predict with certainty that we will be encountering uncertainty on many fronts.

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So how do we deal with these multiple waves of uncertainty which will inevitably come to our shores? We should learn a lesson or two from the surfers of physical waves. They train their bodies to immediately seize and take advantage of a new wave and try to ride it before it swamps them. In Singapore, we should all learn to become mental surfers, ready to ride the next wave of uncertainty before it swamps us.

The art of mental surfing can be best learnt through a liberal arts education. Singaporean parents are congenitally conditioned to push their children to learn something 'useful', like engineering or accounting. Yes, these are worthwhile professions - my son is studying civil engineering. At the same time, Singaporean parents should not despair if their children opt for a 'useless' liberal arts education - as my two other children have.

Such an education may actually provide the most useful education young Singaporeans can get.