'We follow the US public varsity model'

In Conversation

In six years since its inception, the Singapore Management University (SMU) has become one of the most sought after. In an interview, its president, professor Howard Hunter, explains why SMU is a preferred destination...

SMU is based on the Wharton School of University of Pennysylvania. Why?

The idea behind SMU was to complement the Singapore higher education sector by bringing in a university on the American model rather than a British one. We were looking at a pedagogy which enables us to conduct small but interactive classes and helps engage students and teachers in the subjects. This has helped us focus on the best faculty and the best students. SMU's four schools "� Lee Kong School of Business, School of Accountancy and School of Economics and Social Sciences and School of Information Systems "� follow this model. It will be will be launching a law school in 2007.

Do you also adopt the American model to pay the faculty?

Our turnover for this year was S$120m. The government provides all our capital budget. So we invest the money in other developmental activities. For faculty salary scales, we benchmark against the 15 leading public universities in the United States so that we can compete in the world market for talent. It is expensive but these pay scales are higher than that offered by Australian and UK universities and thus give us an edge over the others. We are however, a little below the Stanford University and the Harvard University standards. SMU has 250 faculty members and plans to recruit another 200 in the next three years. SMU has 275 Indian students.

Are you targeting at more?

We get more than we can handle. Last year we had 11,000 applications for 1300 undergraduate seats. We have to restrict ourselves to the cap of 20 per cent attached in case of foreign students. The Singapore government subsidises the education of undergraduate foreign students. Thus these students end up paying only 10 per cent more than any Singaporean students. Thus cost of studying works out cheaper as compared to the US or UK. Subsidised fee for a year at the university is $5000 excluding living and travel expenses. The full fee works out to be $15000. Students who get a subsidy from the Singapore government have to sign a bond where in they are supposed to work in Singapore or for a Singaporean company for three years. Students do not mind this as Singapore's pay scale is a great incentive.

You signed an MoU with the Tatas for an executive education course. Are you looking more Indian companies?

We are negotiating with an American university to participate in executive-MBA in India.We have good relations with Indian companies and we would like to take it further. Our programmes are module based where we would conduct classes in Singapore, US and India.