Constructing a “Global University Centered in Asia”: Globalizing Strategies and Experiences at the National University of Singapore

Abstract

National universities in Asia are now being reconceptualized as global universities, tasked with attracting talented students as well as building international research and teaching linkages. If in the past these universities could focus largely on building national capacity, today their reputations are increasingly determined by global positioning in rankings such as those produced by The Times and Shanghai Jiao Tong. Although several of East Asia’s universities can be regarded as having well-developed national capacities, they vary in their ability to undertake global engagements. Unlike US universities that are “hegemonic exporters” of knowledge, East Asia’s universities are more likely to import ideas, while exporting out students and scholars (Marginson 2004). This challenges the capacity to make significant contributions to knowledge-driven economic growth. This chapter addresses these developments through a discussion of the globalizing strategies of the National University of Singapore (NUS). We focus on the ways NUS has sought to chart a position for itself as a university that is at once “global” and “Asian.”