2021年经济学人 新加坡大学关闭,学生奋起反抗(1)（在线收听）

Asia

亚洲板块

Higher education in Singapore

新加坡的高等教育

Lessons learnt

经验教训

Singapore's first liberal-arts college closes its doors

新加坡第一所文理学院关闭了

Classes the next day were cancelled, the email said, and everyone was encouraged to attend a town hall instead.

邮件中说，第二天的课程取消了，鼓励大家去参加市政厅虚拟会议。

A wave of speculation rippled through the student body at Yale-NUS, a college set up in 2013 as a tie-up between Yale University and the National University of Singapore (NUS).

2013年，耶鲁大学和新加坡国立大学(NUS)联合成立了耶鲁-新加坡国立大学。

At the meeting on August 27th administrators announced that the college's programmes will be combined with another at NUS to form a new institution by 2022.

在8月27日的会议上，管理人员宣布，学院的项目将与新加坡国立大学的另一个项目合并，到2022年形成一个新的机构。

When the current crop of first-years graduate, Yale-NUS will cease to exist.

等到这批新生毕业时，耶鲁-新加坡国立大学将不复存在。

Most undergraduate students in Singapore choose specialised courses of study, such as medicine or law.

在新加坡，大多数本科生选择专业课程学习，如医学专业或法律专业。

Some universities had begun experimenting with interdisciplinary curriculums but it was with Yalenus, the city-state's first liberal-arts college, that Singapore signalled its commitment to a new approach.

一些大学已经开始尝试跨学科课程，但新加坡的第一所文理学院雅伦斯学院标志着新加坡将采用一种新的方式。

Its launch was billed as a grand experiment testing whether an American-style liberal-arts education could sink roots in Asia.

它的推出被视为一项测试美国式的文科教育能否在亚洲扎根的宏大实验。

The decision to close the college was made by NUS, which is consolidating six departments, Yale-NUS among them, into three new colleges.

关闭该学院的决定是新加坡国立大学做出的，它将六个系合并为三个新学院，其中包括耶鲁-新加坡国立大学。

The restructuring, which affects about 18,000 students or half the student body, is in fact a mark of the university's commitment to the liberal arts, argues Chan Heng Chee, a diplomat who sits on the college's board.

该校董事会成员、外交官陈恒智表示，此次重组影响了约1.8万名学生，相当于该校学生总数的一半，实际上是该校致力于人文学科的标志。

The purpose is to make "liberal-arts education more accessible (to Singaporeans) and more inclusive", she says.

她说，这样做的目的是让“文科教育更包容，更容易(被新加坡人)接受”。

Yale-NUS is "exclusive", she argues.

她认为，耶鲁-新加坡国立大学是“排外的”。

It admits at most 1,000 students a year, 40% of whom are foreign.

该校每年最多招收1000名学生，其中40%是留学生。

The new college will enroll twice as many students and will, if NUS fees are anything to go by, charge them less.

而这所新学院将招收两倍的学生，如果按照新加坡国立大学的收费标准，学费将降低。