新加坡通识教育新进展及其对我国的启示——基于耶鲁—新加坡国立大学学院的研究

New Development of Liberal Education in Singapore and Its Inspiration for China: A Study Based on Yale-NUS College

近年来,通识教育的地位在世界高等教育范围内的上升以及高等教育国际化的迅速发展,引起了新加坡政府对本国通识教育的思考与争论。为此,新加坡国立大学联合美国耶鲁大学建立了耶鲁—新加坡国立大学学院。该学院承载全人教育理念,开设具有亚洲特色的通识课程,并在通识教育管理上推行住宿学院制。这所亚洲第一所专门实施通识教育的文理学院的成立,是新加坡乃至世界的创新之举,其在战略思维、教师的招聘与任用、住宿模式的革新等方面对我国通识教育的改革与发展具有重要借鉴意义。

Recent years have witnessed the rise of liberal education worldwide as well as the rapid globalization of higher edu- cation. These have triggered thinking and debate within the Singaporean government on how to improve its liberal education. Yale- NUS College was then established as a result of the partnership between Yale University and the National University of Singapore. Yale-NUS College believes in education that develops whole person, provides liberal-studies courses, and has a compulsory resi- dential college system. As the first liberal arts college in Asia, the establishment of Yale-NUS College is an innovative act not only to Singapore, but also to the whole world. Its achievements in strategic thinking, faculty recruitment and appointment, and resi- dential mode are what China can refer to when reforming and developing its liberal education.