LEE KUAN YEW SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY: BUILDING A GLOBAL POLICY SCHOOL IN ASIA

by Al Kishore Mahbubani Et, Stavros N. Yiannouka, Scott A. Fritzen

In an industry of higher education that measures the longevity of its leading institutions in decades and centuries, the establishment and rapid growth of the eight-year-old Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY School), National University of Singapore, is a remarkable story that deserves to be told. The five co-authors, all of whom were involved in guiding the School during its formative years, provide unique perspectives of key events and the thinking behind major decisions that helped place the School on its current trajectory. They also provide insights into the challenges faced along the way as well as their own motivations in becoming part of this enterprise. Finally, each author provides his or her own thoughts as to the challenges and opportunities that could emerge for the LKY School in years to come.Read the chapters authored by dynamic, key founding and management personnel of the LKY School and discover for the relevance of an Asian policy schoolwhat will make the LKY School's curriculum "one of the most innovative"what sets global policy studies apart from all other academic disciplineswhy executive education at the LKY School is one of the largest in the worldwhy the LKY School is the third best-endowed policy school in the worlda view of high-profile participating "student officials"

208 pages, Hardcover

First published August 23, 2012

Reviews

[Michael Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

TODO:
+ well-written, quick read
+++ excellent book about the establishment and growth of a top-notch young faculty.
+++ Addresses the interesting questions: how to start? What goals? What plan? With whom? How to manage? How to grow the human resources?
+++/- acknowledges the hard truths: the impact on funding of using the name of the first Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew; the impact on education and research topics of being located in Singapore; the tensions between Western and Asian policies, leading to interesting issues in developing content and human resources; etc. Unfortunately, these acknowledgements are limited in scope and do not lead to reasonable critique of the Singaporean government's policies - normal, given the possible punishment as enshrined in law. (The exceptions has only a few sentences, quoting and analyzing the words of Western academics, such as Freedman, but sugar-coating them in praising words about Singapore's government said by the cited Western academics).
---/+ one-sided, all is bright and pleasant in this facility. The growth and impact are indeed excellent, but there is still so much to do...