American foreign talent appointed head of nus chinese studies department

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AMERICAN FOREIGN TALENT APPOINTED HEAD OF NUS CHINESE STUDIES DEPARTMENT

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3 Nov 2014 - 11:07am








A non-Chinese as the head of a Chinese Studies Department? In a first for the National University of Singapore (NUS), American Kenneth Dean has been hired to be exactly just that.

Yes, Professor Dean is a Caucasian man but he apparently speaks fluent Mandarin. Professor Dean is currently with the East Asian Studies Faculty at Canada's McGill University, which he has been with for 25 years.

Professor Dean will join the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences from January 2015.

Professor Dean first came to Singapore 30 years ago to study Chinese temples. He has also been a visiting professor at NUS in the past four to five years.

He is also not a stranger to Asia, having grown up as the son of a United States diplomat who was based in Taiwan.

In fact, the first foreign language he learnt to speak was Hokkien.

He also said that he feels more comfortable in Asia.

NUS also said on its website that Professor Dean “hopes to build on this strength to further boost research in more large-scale studies on Chinese religions and culture in Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia.”







Foreign lecturers in local universities have also recently made headlines.

Marine Parade GRC Member of Parliament Seah Kian Peng had said earlier this year, “One of my colleagues, who is studying at the National University of Singapore, told me how rare it was for his daughter to hear a Singaporean accent when being taught by NUS professors.”

“I found out in the Political Science department of NUS, 28% of the 25 faculty members are Singaporeans. In NTU’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, 41% of the 29 faculty members are Singaporeans. In the NTU Wee Kim Wee School of Communications and Information, 44% of the 48 faculty members are Singaporean. And in the NUS Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, 46% of the 82 faculty members are Singaporeans,” he also said.

“I agree that our universities need to be competitive and internationally well recognised. I know it that in our universities, as in other professions, there needs to be open competition. But the percentages are surely astonishing — only a bit more than one quarter of the professors at the Political Science department in NUS are Singaporeans!”
Apparently, former Nominated MP Eugene Tan, an associate professor of law at the Singapore Management University, had brought this up six times in parliament.
The Minister of Education has yet to address this issue in parliament.


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