Sunday, 31 December 2017
Berita Minggu
This was an article contribution by Dr Azhar Ibrahim, Deputy Head of the Department of Malay Studies at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, in which he wrote about the history of Singapore and traced the development of Singapore Malays since the 19th century, prior to the British colonisation of Singapore.
Sunday, 31 December 2017
Channel NewsAsia Online
This was an article contribution by Assistant Professor Patricia Chen from the Department of Psychology at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in which she shared how we can rise to the challenge of better achieving our goals. Asst Prof Chen noted that behaviour change is easier said than done and added that success lies not in the act of setting the goal, but in how it is made and executed.
Click here to read the article.
Wednesday, 13 December 2017
The Straits Times
In today’s edition of The Straits Times, there was an article contribution by Professor Chew Soo Hong and Provost’s Chair Professor from the Department of Economics at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, in which he discussed whether haze clouds decision-making. Prof Chew shared findings from a first-of-its-kind natural experiment on ambient PM2.5 and decision making that he conducted with researchers from Wuhan University, which was observed in an incentivised laboratory setting in Beijing in October 2012, before PM2.5 was included as part of the air quality measure in China. He noted that when looking at the social costs of environmental pollution, policymakers have tended to focus on the direct economic costs, but there is a need to take into account the impact of air pollution on how people make decisions.
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Monday, 11 December 2017
Lianhe Zaobao
This was a review of a book by Associate Professor Lee Chee Hiang from the Department of Chinese Studies at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences on charitable organisations started by the Teochew community in Singapore. The book presented new research findings on the development of such charitable organisations, the folk beliefs and customs of the Teochew community, and the early Singapore immigrant society and charity activities.
Click here to read the article in Chinese.
Wednesday, 6 December 2017
The Straits Times
This was an article contribution by Associate Professor Irene YH Ng from the Department of Social Work and Director of Social Service Research Centre at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Assoc Prof Ng discussed the longer term implications of plans to give priority primary school admission to pupils attending kindergartens operated by the Ministry of Education. She observed that this leads to a group being created that will likely be assigned a prestige label because of the ‘insiders’ benefit of priority admission. Assoc Prof Ng opined that there is a danger that the creation of a new preferential group will further segregate pupils by socio-economic status and bring the ‘arms race’ for educational success earlier to the pre-primary level, adding that such priority admission can create more intense competition among children at a young age (and their parents) and inadvertently worsen educational inequality.
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Tuesday, 28 November 2017
The Straits Times
This was an article contribution by Dr Kelvin Seah Kah Cheng from the Department of Economics at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, in which he discussed how we can get an accurate estimate of the value of a private university degree, relative to an autonomous university degree. Dr Seah noted that as long as there is nothing special about the threshold entry requirement, other than its use in assigning students to the different types of universities, we can reasonably attribute any difference in labour market outcomes at the threshold to the effect of university choice. This is because students immediately on both sides of the threshold are likely to be similar. He added that before such an exercise is done, it would be premature to sound the death knell for private schools.
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Friday, 24 November 2017
The Straits Times
In this monthly “Ask NUS Economist” series, Dr Kelvin Seah, Lecturer at the Department of Economics at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, discussed whether the gender of a teacher affects a student’s academic experience. Dr Seah shared that that his study has found that both male and female students are more likely to be seen as disruptive when they are taught by a teacher of the opposite sex and with all else equal, assignment to a teacher of the same sex has a positive effect on a child’s academic experience. Dr Seah noted that having a clear understanding of how teachers and students interact will enable us to formulate appropriate policies to address any potential gender effects.
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Sunday, 19 November 2017
Lianhe Zaobao
This was a report on a public lecture co-organised by the Department of Chinese Studies at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Lianhe Zaobao held on 18 November 2017. Renowned Sinologist Professor John Minford spoke about the existence of ‘gardens’ in both Western and Eastern literary work and gave examples of the observatory garden from the Chinese classic “Dream of the Red Chamber” and the selfish giant’s garden in “The Selfish Giant” by Oscar Wilde.
Sunday, 29 October 2017
Lianhe Zaobao
It was reported that Professor Kenneth Dean, Head of the Department of Chinese Studies at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Science in NUS and Dr Hue Guan Thye, Senior Research Fellow from the same Department, led a team of researchers to complete the initial stages of a field study on 469 grave stones dating from the Qing Dynasty, at the earliest Hokkien cemetery at Onraet Road. The research is funded by the Heritage Grant Scheme of the National Heritage Board.
Click here to read the article in Chinese.
Saturday, 21 October 2017
The Business Times Weekend
This was a report on the Singapore Economic Policy Forum 2017 jointly organised by the Department of Economics at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Economic Society of Singapore on 20 October 2017 at the Regent Hotel. At the forum, themed Preparing Singapore for the Future Economy, Professor Ivan Png of NUS Department of Economics unveiled his findings on the “Airbnb effect” on Singapore, in a study said to be the first of its kind in Asia. His research found that the home sharing platform had an effect on residential real estate transactions; there was a correlation between the penetration of Airbnb hosts in a residential block and the resale prices of that block over time.
Click here to read the article.