Universities should offer multiple points of entry to students throughout their lifetimes, including part-time degrees and modular-level study, Singapore¡¯s education minister has said.

Lawrence Wong told an online forum that the traditional model of ¡°a fixed period of education, and then a fixed period of work¡± was ¡°no longer relevant today¡±.

¡°The university of the future needs to be plural, rather than singular. It should be more of a ¡®multi-versity¡¯, rather than a university,¡± he told the event hosted by The Straits Times and Singapore Management University (SMU).

Multiple points of entry should allow for the creation of a ¡°rotational model¡± of education, Mr Wong said. ¡°All our universities are looking at ways to provide more holistic learning,¡± he continued.

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¡°We are also looking at greater breadth,?and more interdisciplinary and cross-domain knowledge, for example, in areas like digital literacy, innovation, entrepreneurship and communication.¡±

The National University of Singapore, for example, will open a cross-disciplinary?College of Humanities and Sciences?in the 2021-22 academic year.?

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Mr Wong warned universities about the consequences of not working more closely with industry, citing the UK¡¯s Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology as a cautionary tale of a corporation setting up its own degree-granting higher education institution when its staffing needs?were unmet. ?

¡°When universities don¡¯t move fast enough, they become at risk of being disrupted,¡± he said.?¡°I don¡¯t think we need to go there, but our universities should strengthen and deepen their collaboration with companies here in Singapore.¡±

Mr Wong also said that the recent shift to online learning should be seen as part of a longer transformation, and not merely a reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic.

He dispelled the idea that online education was cheaper to deliver, because staff salaries make up the bulk of expenditure whether courses are in-person or not.

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¡°There is a view that, ¡®So much of this is going online, surely it can be cheaper,¡¯¡± he said. ¡°If everything is 100 per cent online, sure, but that¡¯s not university education. You¡¯re not going to get a university education by signing up to Moocs [massive open online courses] for four years.¡±

Lily Kong, SMU¡¯s president, also spoke at the event and warned against using technology for technology¡¯s sake.

¡°The much more important question is: what are the outcomes of higher education that we hope to see and what is the best way of delivering those outcomes?¡± she asked.

Professor?Kong said that previous projections that education would go virtual have not quite come true. She cited?Disrupting Class?(2008), a book by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen, who predicted that half of secondary school classes would be online by 2019.

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¡°We all know that that hasn¡¯t happened,¡± she said. ¡°Some people believe that it will still happen, aided by Covid-19, but the jury is out.¡±

So far, technology was being used to ¡°make the best of the situation¡± due to Covid limitations. However, the hope is that full travel and campus life can return soon.

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¡°We will deliver the best experiences that we can until such time that we can pivot offline,¡± Professor Kong said. ?

joyce.lau@timeshighereducation.com?