dip in fortunes...

So the latest THE (Times Higher Education) ranking is out. The overall ranking for NUS climbed ever so slightly from 33 to 30, while that of NTU took a bit of a dip from 69 to 77. The gap between Singapore's two top universities continue to widen.

I need to explain that I am not a believer of the ranking, nor do I follow the perverse fixation of our leaders on pursuing these ranking numbers. Some have likened this process to a bunch of people sewing on buttons onto the emperor's new clothes, and everyone crowing about how beautiful the various emperor's new clothes look. But given Singapore's fixation with metrics and astute skills in playing global ranking numbers for almost every sphere of government and quasi-governmental activities, the falling ranking of the school must be of concern to all.

But these numbers do to some extent reflect the commitment of the various institutions to their mission. We can of course, debate the appropriateness of their mission, or strategies taken, but the maintenance of a good global ranking should theoretically reflect on the quality and commitment of the management of the institution. That being the case, the falling ranking of NTU should give their leaders some reason to do some self examination. The Straits Times reported Prof Su Guan Ning, NTU's President as being "...optimistic that NTU's ranking will improve in a few years when work by new top faculty members will start to have an impact". But that sounds somewhat lame because the school's ranking should not be so dependent on the publications of a couple of recruited top scientists.

NTU has not had very good press lately. They have had problems with staff morale...and they have had run ins with their students. Not so long ago they struggled with their mission, torn between being a full university, or a limited technological one. Perhaps their indecisiveness and somewhat confused corporate mission may have had a part to play in degrading the university's overall performance. The corridor talk is that morale in the university is low.

I hope for Singapore and NTU's sake the situation will improve soon.