“Educational policy and economic pragmatism: Higher education in Singapore and Cyprus. A comparative study ”
Panayotis Persianis
Page 9-23
Abstract
Educational policy and economic pragmatism: Higher education in Singapore and Cyprus. A comparative study The paper is an attempt to compare the state higher education policies in two small and poor in natural resources countries and former British colonies, Singapore and Cyprus. The comparison reveals two very different examples of higher education state policies and state university relationships in the two countries. Singapore exercises a very tight control over universitities while Cyprus employs a policy of university autonomy and academic freedom. The paper suggests that these differences can be explained as the result of three factors : a) the different degree of industrial development, b) the different demands of the industries developed, and c) the different political and cultural context, and more specifically, the different hierarchy of values in the two countries. The last difference determines to a large extent the different strategy with which the two states try to achieve their legitimacy.