But since 1980, we have put more resources into research. Today, the number of PhDs we produce (95 last year) and the research funds obtained from the Government (US$50 million) place us at the top of the CCI scale at Research Universities I. We are perhaps the fastest growing university in the world in terms of academic status. That's why you all are feeling the pressure and you are going to have to work smarter in the time to come.

Rapid growth

Figure 1 shows our publication history in Science Citation Index (SCI) journals. In 1980, we were comparable to the University of Malaya—we shared a common history with it for a while. Today, we have overtaken all the universities in New Zealand and most of the universities in Asia. If you put us in the Australian basket, we will rank in the top five. In terms of annual growth in SCI journal publications, more mature universities like Tokyo, Harvard and Cambridge are growing at a much slower rate than Asian universities like Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and even Korea. Still, we are far from Cambridge University, which produced over 3,300 papers in 1995, and Harvard, number one in the world, with about 8,000 papers annually.

Impact fingerprints

What about quality? I chose an area for which NUS has strength—the physical and chemical sciences with contributions coming from the Faculty of Science and some from the Faculty of Engineering and looked at a basket of about 94 journals. Figure 2 shows our growth and impact distribution over the last ten years. Our distribution used to peak on the low impact journals (LIJ).

Then it slowly shifted toward the medium impact journals (MIJ). When we become a world-class university, perhaps in 15_20 years, our fingerprint should look like that of MIT (see figure 3).

* Data run on 11 Jan 1997 when 1996 totals were not yet
complete—another 5 to 10% increase was expected.

Growth is flat and the peak is always in the high impact journals (HIJ). ANU has the same pattern. This is a good indicator as to whether or not a university has reached world-class status in a particular field.

Now, how do we fare against British universities? In a count of high and medium impact journal publications in 1996, we rank as #13 (96 total), slightly ahead of Warwick (92 total), way ahead of universities like Essex (31 total) and Open (21 total), but far behind Cambridge (497 total) and Oxford (454 total). Part of what separates us from the latter is their large number of post-doctoral fellows—about 5 times more than what we have. And that makes a big difference. Figure 4 compares our impact distribution to those of some other universities.

The $4 million question

At NUS, we tell our academic staff the ABCs of what they are supposed to do: teaching (we all must do), research (you'd better do) and administration (if you can, please do). In most cases, tenure is a $4 million dollar question and ought to be taken more seriously than we do today. Currently, the Personnel Department initiates the process by sending a letter and assessment forms to the head of department. The head and the dean have about two weeks to meet with the candidate, complete the evaluation and reach a decision. Assessment parameters include teaching quality and workload, laboratory development (for Science and Engineering), research quantity and quality, administration, relationships with staff and students, proficiency in English and other duties and services. We normally expect the candidate to have good, very good or outstanding overall performance in order to be recommended for tenure or contract renewal.

Suggestions for change

But should we, because of this $4 million dollar question, change the tenure process? Here are some changes we can make. While teaching and service can continue to be assessed internally, research can be better assessed externally.

The first step is for the candidate to produce the curriculum vitae and a list of eight reviewers. The head and the dean together can supplement the list and seek the consent of reviewers to look at the complete dossier. In parallel, the candidate will produce the whole scholarly package which includes the teaching portfolio, significant published works and any reviews the candidate has already obtained for his or her work.

With all this material, and assuming that eight reviewers agree, the package is sent out by the head. Based on the letters received, a decision is made—in conjunction with tenured staff in the department—and forwarded to the dean's office for ratification as well as to the vice-chancellor.

Smarter teaching

Another question has been raised: Since promotion and tenure are both based very heavily on research, what is going to happen to teaching? How do we avoid damaging the quality of our teaching as we progress on our enormous growth path? I think we have to be aware of what effective learning means from the student's point of view. We need to focus on the student's mind, not the subject matter, and make learning a part of real life situations. Lectures alone are not enough; we must use an apprenticeship approach involving mentorship and coaching (e.g., the Research Opportunities Programme in Science and Engineering).

We have to be aware of the skills and competencies required for students to operate in the real world and we need to make sure they have the basic skills of listening and speaking. Thinking skills and the core competencies of managing resources, interpersonal skills, managing information, managing systems, managing technology, team-working skills and cross-border skills are critical.

The academic workplace is evolving—from lecturing to coaching, passive learning to active learning, textbooks to customized materials, and even from tenure to contract work. Be ready for change. The university is not what it used to be.

Carnegie Classification of Institutions (CCI) NUS '96 Research Univ. I 2.5% Research Univ. II 2.5% Doctoral Univ. 5% NUS '80 Comprehensive Univ. 10% Liberal Arts Colleges 30% Community Colleges 50% CCI levels are determined by the amount of government funding for research and the number of Ph.Ds produced. NUS in 1980... 817 Academic staff 8,634 Undergraduates 433 Postgraduates ~120 SCI journal papers NUS today... ~1,600 Academic staff ~18,500 Undergraduates ~5,500 Postgraduates >1,000 SCI journal papers NUS academic staff profile 1995-1996 70 Professors 5% 277 Associate Professors 18% 533 Senior Lecturers 33% 399 Lecturers 25% 132 Senior Tutors 19% 121 Visiting Staff 19% 60 Adjunct Staff 19% Total: 1,592

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