From street signs to hawker centre signs, Singapore’s multilingual and multicultural society is reflected in how language is used. Often overlooked by us as we go about our daily lives, the linguistic landscape of public eating places is more telling about Singapore’s language policies than we may realise. Recently awarded a Tier 1 Research Grant […]

Singapore’s government has denied providing social welfare for a long time, but is this ideological resistance taking a toll on society? NUS Provost’s Chair Professor of Sociology Chua Beng Huat tells The Straits Times that poverty in Singapore is not only a financial issue, but an ideological one. Singapore’s capitalist economy causes an unavoidable income […]

What lessons can developing economies take from Singapore’s success story? Dr Goh Keng Swee is recognized as Singapore’s first economic architect. Despite his passing on 14 May 2010, the visionary’s legacy lives on. Dr Goh firmly believed that non-economic factors trumped economic ones in determining a developing economy’s success. Like other developing nations, Singapore faced […]

Private tuition has had the bad reputation for engendering an overly-competitive society, but should it really be banned for good? NUS Lecturer in the Dept of Economics Kelvin Seah tells The Straits Times banning tuition might in fact be counterproductive. Raising the example of South Korea’s tuition ban implemented during the 1980s, he relates the […]

Word has been going around that Singapore might play host to the summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. But can Singapore and Southeast Asia take on other meaningful roles in this particular situation? Dr. Hyejin Kim, Lecturer from the Department of Political Science at NUS, and Associate Professor […]

The tudung, a piece of cloth worn over women’s heads, can be seen as a signifier of Malay Muslim women identity. Wearing tudung has been a way of life for Malay Muslim women. However, when Dr Suriani Suratman (Senior Lecturer, Department of Malay Studies) discovered that a few Malay female students in her class had […]

Singaporeans are largely resistant to raising the standards of Foreign Domestic Workers’ (FDWs) work conditions, especially with regards to wage, welfare and living arrangements. Are Singaporeans really lacking in empathy? Assistant Professor of Psychology in NUS, Jia Lile, together with his incoming PhD Student Mike Hou, shares with Channel News Asia the need to shift […]

Many of us complain about Singapore’s sweltering heat, but Assistant Professor Winston Chow (NUS Geography) suggests we stop wondering and focus on how to make our city cooler. Dr Chow is one of three Singaporean-based academics selected by a United Nations committee to contribute to the sixth assessment report for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate […]

How should literature be taught in Singapore’s secondary schools? Using texts authored by local writers, or English literary texts hailing from the British tradition, Prof. Philip Holden (Dept. of English Language and Literature) suggests a rethink, but cautions against reconstituting the curriculum in a purely nationalist mould. He proposes some alternatives, one of which is […]

Considering that mangroves only cover 0.5% of Singapore’s land area, do these ecosystems really matter? NUS Geography Associate Professor Daniel Friess shares with The Straits Times insightful findings after three years of research on the mangroves in Singapore. Mangroves offer both environmental and cultural benefit for Singapore, making them invaluable ecosystems worth our attention. The […]