I was at Beijing attending the Nantah Reunion. There were more than 1000 ex graduates attended the gathering.I met a lots of my senior. The Sprite was high in rebuilding Nantah.
The conclusion was to revive the university with exiting Chinese medium tertiary institution in Malaysia and Thailand.
On 18 Oct 2008, The Straits Times newspaper has a comprehensive report on this.
The next reunion was scheduled on 2010 at Malaysia.
4 comments:
The idea of building a new Nantah, to locate in Malaysia and Thailand, seems very feasible and refreshing. However, by doing so, ex graduates have to accept the fact that the old Nantah built from the funding of Mr Tan Lark Sai and the public, is dead and gone. The deceased university hence has no more connection with the present NTU whatsoever after building the new university in a foreign country, starting afresh all over again. Also establishing a new chinese university in foreign land needs to raise building funds and also involving some political risk to a certain extent which potential founders have to take into careful consideration before venturing into such a mega project.
From a Singaporean's perspectives, Nantah may not live on if it is sited outside Singapore but to the international Nantah alumni who hail from all over the world, it matters not where it is located as long as it is in the south seas (nanyang), i.e., South East Asia (S.E.A.), in order to retain the uniqueness of Nanyang University - that of being the only Chinese language medium university in S.E.A. Many of the alumni are not Singaporeans and probably never were, having come from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, etc.
Back in those times, the Chinese in the S.E.A. had few options of where to go to further their studies, other than to go to Taiwan. The People's Republic of China (PRC) was closed to foreigners, and the governments in this region were suspicious of people going to communist China.
Times have changed since then - the Cold War is long over, PRC has opened up her doors and her top universities are of world class standards and ranked amongst the top 100 in the world. Since the closing of Nantah, many Chinese from Malaysia, Indonesia and the region have chosen to further their studies in Taiwan, and even in China.
In order to preserve the spirit and identity of Nantah, I feel that the revived Nantah will have to continue to cater to the Chinese in this region (for outside this region, there are too many prestigious universities in Taiwan and PRC to choose from) for reasons of proximity and costs. The name Nanyang University itself warrants it.
Dear Friends,
Thanks for your comments. I still focusing on my core competency' ie how to make improvement in all areas. Actions spaek louder than words.
Regards
pehsk
Why I view building a chinese university from a political angle is that many countries in this region are lukewarm towards chinese culture and education at best if not against. Coupled with the political volatility in these countries, building a chinese university there could be a very risky undertaking.
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