Local universities vital in promoting innovation

Innovation is key in the new economy, and a major driver of this is research and education. In this endeavour, institutes of higher learning, especially universities, play a critical role.

Undeniably, research has become more competitive, with discoveries and publications being reported more quickly and in greater volume. Given this challenging climate, will our local universities be able to measure up?

Looking at the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) that were released last month, one might be forgiven for feeling a little discouraged.

ARWU is the oldest established ranking system for universities and employs multiple parameters to assess research excellence objectively.

This year, the National University of Singapore (NUS) has unfortunately continued to flatline outside the top 100 as it has done since ARWU started in 2003 — and as universities in nearby developed countries have made steady progress into the top 100.

These include those from Japan (University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Nagoya University and Osaka University) and Australia (University of Melbourne, University of Queensland, Australian National University and University of Western Australia).

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) failed to capitalise on its steady gains since 2004, although it appears nonetheless to be on an overall upward trajectory and is now one band below NUS.

Subject-wise, the news was not much better for NUS. Notably, its most established faculty, Medicine, failed to reverse last year’s slide and now seems entrenched in the 101 to 150 band.

On a more positive note, it is gratifying that NTU is making strong headway in Engineering. Ranked 11th in this area, NTU looks ripe to breach the top 10. Coupled with an earlier ranking that placed one of its engineering courses in the world’s top 10, this suggests that NTU may have hit upon a formula blending impactful research with quality teaching.

This lends credence to a view that the next generation of innovators will probably arise outside the West.