Question from Quora: https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Singapores-government-cabinet-filled-with-LSE-Cambridge-MIT-Stanford-Harvard-graduates

Why is Singapore's government cabinet filled with LSE/Cambridge/MIT/Stanford/Harvard graduates?

Anonymous:

Most of the cabinet ministers who went to LSE/Cambridge/MIT/Stanford/Harvard are ex-government scholars and pretty much did so on the government’s dime mostly in the 70’s and the 80’s. Those who were not government scholars (e.g. Tharman who went to LSE) come from a financially well-off background (Tharman’s father was a medical school professor in NUS). The cost of attending these schools for a bright, academically qualified A-level school leaver in those days was prohibitively high if the person came from a middle-class background. So, most bright people in those days would just settle for NUS or its predecessor the University of Singapore.

The fact that they went to these schools is more characteristic of their common civil service/SAF background and of the uncomfortable fact that there are very few, if any, ministers in Lee Hsien Loong’s cabinet who come from the real private sector (GLC’s are not counted). In the Singapore private sector, in the upper echelons of many large private companies, the academic background of top management executives is much more varied because academic pedigree is not as important as what the other answers suggest; work experience and performance count for much more. Ironically, there are more people of a genuine private sector background amongst the Workers Party MP’s than there are full cabinet ministers who come from the private sector.

The risks of groupthink and institutional inbreeding are very high in such an organization. As someone who works in the private sector, this worries me a lot because the Singapore government exerts a tight control over many sectors of the private sector via regulations, policies and funding, and the lack of private sector experience means that the decision makers have no intuition about how private firms function especially in terms of costs and management.

Calvin Yong:

Since independence, the Singapore government tries to model itself with long successful model. For this topic, it is modeled on long tested method in imperial China to get the top educated into government service. Mandarins to today’s technocrats and bureaucrats.

So it means taking those who perform best in local schools and sponsoring them for outstanding schools around the world. Then when they are back to provide them good opportunities in civil service.

Also due to short history of Singapore and majority of population coming up from very poor base (2 generation ago). The people prefers to be led by the smartest guys rather than financially successful (rich) or noble. This is reinforced by Singapore ‘s first and longest serving prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew who was top Cambridge scholar that set the benchmark.

Sam Qwato:

Q. Why is Singapore's government cabinet filled with LSE / Cambridge / MIT / Stanford / Harvard graduates?

(1) Short answer:

Governance System: Technocracy
HR: Good talent to run a high-performing cabinet, and by extension. government.
Process: Objective, transparent selection criteria. You get into cabinet on account of your qualifications from a top university. Technocratic. Not by money, influence, pedigree. Ala China’s Imperial exam, where the broadbased citizenry is the talent pool.
Culture: Chinese-Singaporeans form the majority ethnic group (74%). East Asian Confucian heritage. Respect for educational achievement, intellect, competency.
Heritage: Asian heritage. Primacy of, respect for, education.
International Immersion: Singapore is a global city. Its survival and prosperity is dependent on leveraging global forces. Its leaders need to be world-savvy. Elite universities have an international, diversified student body, and an international cast of academic staff. International immersion, networking. Other countries would also send their power-elites-to-be to these institutions to groom them.
Political: Indirectly erects a high entry barrier for opposition party candidates to compete for parliamentary seats, and for opposition parties to win power. If you want to give us a good fight, you’ve to line up a similarly formidable team, and then, bench. In Singapore, Oxbridge, Ivies and elite universities graduates would rather dedicate themselves to gainful careers in banking, the professions, top MNCs, rather than get into the iffy snakepit of Opposition Politics, exert lots of huffin’ and puffin’ energy, with no clear and tangible accomplishments in view.

(2) Related: Singapore Ministers (Jan 2016): Schools/Universities Attended:

PM Lee Hsien Loong:

Trinity College, Cambridge (Math)
Harvard John F. Kennedy (JFK) School of Government (Master of Public Admin (MPA))
US Army Command & General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
DPM Teo Chee Hean:

Uni of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology (UMIST), UK (Engineering)
Imperial College, UK (Comp. Sc.)
Harvard JFK School of Govt (MPA)
DPM Tharman:

LSE (Economics)
Cambridge (MPA)
Khaw Boon Wan:

Uni of Newcastle, Australia (Engineering, Commerce)
National Uni of Singapore (NUS) (Industrial Engineering)
Chan Chun Sing:

Cambridge (Economics)
MIT Sloan (Management)
Yaacob Ibrahim:

NUS (Civil Engineering)
Stanford
Cornell
Lim Hng Kiang:

Cambridge (Engineering)
Harvard JFK School of Govt (Master of Public Admin (MPA))
Lim Swee Say:

Loughborough (UK) (Electronics, Computer & Systems Engineering)
Stanford (Management)
Dr. Ng Eng Hen:

NUS (Med)
Uni of Texas
Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan: NUS (Med)
Shanmugam: NUS (Law)
Gan Kim Yong: Cambridge (Elect. Engineering)
Iswaran:

Uni of Adelaide (Economics)
Harvard JFK School of Govt (Master of Public Admin (MPA))
Heng Swee Keat:

Cambridge (Economics)
Harvard JFK School of Govt (Master of Public Admin (MPA))
Grace Fu: NUS (Accountancy, MBA)
Tan Chuan-Jin (appointed parliamentary Speaker in 2016):

LSE (Economics)
King’s (Defence Studies)
NUS LKYSPP (Master in Public Mgmt.)
Lawrence Wong:

Wisconsin-Madison (Economics)
Uni of Michigan (Economics)
Harvard JFK School of Govt (Master of Public Admin (MPA))
Masagos Zulkifli:

Nanyang Technological Uni, Singapore (NTU) (Engineering)
NUS (Engineering)
Uni of Southern California (MBA)
Ng Chee Meng:

US Air Force Academy (Elect. Engineering)
Tufts Uni Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Intl. Relations)
Ong Ye Kung:

LSE (Economics)
Intl Institute for Mgmt Development, Switzerland (MBA)
Details: https://www.google.com.sg/amp/s/discoversg.com/2016/01/19/a-look-at-where-singaore-ministers-attended/amp/

Assistant:

Singapore's government cabinet is often filled with graduates from prestigious institutions like the London School of Economics (LSE), Cambridge, MIT, Stanford, and Harvard for several reasons:

Meritocracy: Singapore emphasizes a meritocratic system where individuals are selected for leadership positions based on their abilities and achievements. Graduating from top universities is seen as a marker of high capability and potential.
Global Standards: These institutions are renowned for their rigorous academic standards and research output. Graduates from these universities often possess a strong foundation in critical thinking, quantitative analysis, and problem-solving skills, which are valuable in governance.
Networking and Expertise: Attending prestigious universities often provides access to influential networks and expert knowledge. Graduates can leverage these connections and insights to inform policy-making and governance strategies.
International Perspective: Many of these universities have a global outlook, equipping graduates with an understanding of international issues, economics, and governance practices. This is particularly important for a globalized city-state like Singapore.
Historical Context: The founding leaders of Singapore, including Lee Kuan Yew, were educated at these institutions and set a precedent for valuing elite education in public service. This tradition has continued as subsequent generations of leaders follow a similar educational path.
Investment in Education: The Singaporean government invests heavily in education and encourages its citizens to pursue higher education, particularly in fields that contribute to governance, economics, and technology.

This combination of factors contributes to the presence of graduates from elite universities in Singapore's cabinet, reinforcing the country's focus on effective and informed governance.

Yong Wen San:

Mid-1990’s Singapore school-leaver here.

The universities you listed are all pedigree universities from the U.K. and the U.S. - both are English-speaking countries. This is consistent with Singapore’s language policy of having English as the language of administration, so having their scholars study in these prestigious institutions would pretty much guarantee that they would go and return with the requisite fluency in the language as required for their leadership roles.

During my ‘A’ Level years there (no, I am not a Singapore citizen or resident - I only studied there), the various ministries and organisations were offering scholarships to top scorers to study abroad in such institutions.

P.S. You might want to add Oxford to the U.K. list, and Princeton and Yale to the U.S list. :)

Richard Chapman:

You mean as opposed to what? Bus drivers and hawker stall operators? NUS or Nanyang? Malaysians? Maybe you mean they should have all been to Fudan or BeiDa? Or Sandhurst or West Point?

Eugene Tang:

Most of the Singpaore’s government cabinet are the 2nd and 3rd generation leaders. Back when the local university were not as well-established and policies are at its infancy stage, it would be a golden opportunity to see the potential policies that could be adopted in Singapore.

However, a diverse group of people are joining politics, and they are unorthodox compared to previous generations. Some came from polytechnic, while some studied locally. As Singapore progresses, you will definitely see the peaks and downfalls. The part and parcels of trial and error~

Anonymous:

Because those are where rich and smart Singaporean kids study.

Similarly, top British politicians are all too often Oxbridge graduates, because those are where the rich and smart kids go to study. Both Theresa May and David Cameron are Oxford alumni. Gordon Brown studied in Edinburgh. Not an Oxbridge, but still a top university, so it still qualifies as a place where rich and smart kids study.

The American politics is not much different. Top American political rank is full of Ivy Leagues alumni. Even the stupid Trump is a graduate of UPenn. Barack Obama studied in Columbia and Harvard. George W Bush studied in Yale and Harvard.

France’s ENA is even more impressive. The school was established only in 1945, but it had educated 4 French presidents and 7 French prime ministers. Even Emmanuel Macron who is said to break the traditions of French politics also studied in ENA.

If you have the talent, resources, and work ethics which are necessary to reach the top political rank, perhaps you have been exceptional since you were very young. If you are exceptional, then studying in an elite school is a natural choice. There is nothing unusual about this. The only unusual thing is how Singaporeans brag about meritocracy stuffs and their politicians’ education background. In other countries, these are just footnotes.

John Sittes:

Director at Privately Held Investment Company (2011–present)4y

It is very strange for Singapore to send its students to America’s best schools. Why? Because Singapore is a essentially a small city state populated by mostly ethnic Chinese. Why send their people to the UK or US? Shouldn’t they send them to China? And that is why the mainland Chinese do not consider Singaporeans to be real Chinese. They read, think and write in English and even get their education from America. Yet, all this time they will talk about the need to retain Asian values. Lee Kuan Yew espoused Asian values and in not so subtle terms implied they were superior but he westernized the entire country. Seems very strange.

The second aspect to this is that having such degree qualifications but without the requisite American background having not grown up in the US, means they don’t really get the real whole benefit of such a US education. And you can see today the disaster these so called scholars have on Singapore. Which is why the recent elections resulted in a even more painful drop in the votes for the ruling party.