Interview with Dr. Ernest Chew

Dr. Ernest Chin Tiong Chew is a renowned local historian and educator. A true-blue ACSian, he completed his primary, secondary and Pre-U education in the Anglo-Chinese School (ACS). He entered the University of Singapore in 1961, and graduated with a BA Honours in History (1964) and an MA in Malayan history (1967). He obtained his Ph.D in Indian History from the University of Cambridge in 1970, and was appointed a Lecturer at the University of Singapore that year. He held visiting fellowships at Harvard University (1974-75) and at the University of Cambridge (1980-81). After the National University of Singapore (NUS) was established in 1980, Dr.Chew became Head of the History Department (1983-92) and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (1991-97). Dr. Chew has chaired various government committees relating to history, such as the Standing Committee on History at the Ministry of Education, the Oral History Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Culture, and the Singapore History Museum Board of the Ministry of Culture/Information and the Arts. For these services, he was awarded the Public Service Medal in 1994. He is an Honorary Chairman of the Singapore History Museum, which is now an integral part of the National Museum. In the University, Dr. Chew facilitated the merger between Nanyang University (NU / Nantah) and the University of Singapore (SU / Sintah), and helped to initiate the modular curriculum in the NUS. In the History Department and Arts Faculty, he introduced new courses. In this interview, Dr. Chew shares with us his memories of some milestones in the history of NUS and his personal involvement in these events. In the 2014 QS Asian University Rankings, the National University of Singapore emerged as the top Asian institution. Based in Singapore, a small nation in Southeast Asia, the school has a noteworthy presence in the regional and global educational landscape. As the foremost tertiary educational institution in Singapore, NUS and her predecessors have nurtured thousands of graduates with diverse talents, who have shaped this nation’s government, dynamic economy and multi-ethnic society. As we view the success of this school, we must not forget those who witnessed the birth of NUS, refined her curriculum, and brought her international recognition. Amongst these figures is Dr. Ernest Chew, a renowned historian and educator in Singapore. In the 1970s, a societal trend worried Singapore’s policy makers and educators. Between the graduates of the two local tertiary institutions, Nanyang University and the University of Singapore, gaps in job opportunities and income levels had been formed and were widening at an alarming rate. ‘To many employers, Nantah graduates were regarded as inferior to their counterparts with a University of Singapore degree.’ It was clear to government policy-makers that Singapore as a global city must participate in international commercial and financial activities more actively than ever before. It then followed that the working population in Singapore should be equipped with a greater proficiency in English, the lingua franca of the rapidly globalized world, while retaining some facility in Asian languages. Most employers then would prefer the English-educated Sintah graduates to their Chinese-speaking counterparts from Nantah. The Prime Minister and his Cabinet deemed it necessary to level the playground for both Nantah and Sintah graduates, and a major turning point for both schools as well as Singapore’s tertiary education was reached. University educators agreed that the way forward would be the merger of the two institutions into a new university with an English-speaking environment, ‘so that there will be one university and one degree which employers could assess.’ To facilitate the merger, Dr. Tony Tan, the then Vice Chancellor and the current President of Singapore, formed a three-men committee to oversee integration and the committee consisted of Prof. Lim Pin, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Sintah, Prof. Koh Lip Lin, Dean of Science at Nantah, and Dr. Ernest Chew, Acting Dean of Arts and Social Sciences at Sintah. ‘So the three of us put our heads together to see how we could bring staff from Nantah to the Bukit Timah joint campus, to provide rooms and facilities, how we could integrate the two universities into the new National University.’ To the committee, one of the major concerns was to ensure that the Nantah staff would be treated equally with the Sintah staff. ‘We wanted to ensure...that the staff could meet, mingle, and understand each other.’ Understandably, a number of Chinese-educated and Chinese-speaking Nantah staff found it hard to change their teaching language, and thus could not integrate themselves into the English-speaking workplace (apart from the Chinese Studies Department). But their welfare was definitely not neglected by the committee. ‘We tried to take care of staff who could not adjust and helped them to find other jobs elsewhere, if not in Singapore, then overseas. This was what our committee was very concerned about.’ For the Nantah staff who could manage the transition, the committee had another plan. ‘We went department by department, and we tried to see what subjects they could teach. In fact some Sintah staff might have to teach other courses so that the Nantah staff could teach courses which they were more familiar with.’ Indubitably, the committee members put their heart and soul into facilitating the merger as well as validating the beautiful equation ‘NU + US = NUS’. Indeed, their hard work was fruitful. ‘I look back with fondness, even some pride, at the constructive merger.’ Yet, although the merger ascertained that future NUS graduates would meet the language requirement of the increasingly international working world, the act of merger itself was not enough to make NUS a leading Asian university. To make the latter happen, numerous academic projects had to be undertaken to modify NUS’s curriculum. Such projects headed by Dr. Ernest Chew could be grouped under two categories, one being the implementation of the modular curriculum, the other the creation of new courses such as Military History and Southeast Asian Studies. The modular curriculum was officially introduced at NUS in the mid-1990s, when Dr. Chew was the Dean of Arts and Social Sciences. By then, Dr. Chew and his colleagues had already noticed the unique advantages of the modular curriculum. Such a curriculum goes by semesters instead of school year, and unlike the existing system under which written exams are conducted at the end of each school year, the modular system adopts diversified modes of assessments including continuous assessment of assignments, quizzes, etc. ‘I think it’s preferable to have different modes of evaluating skills you want to assess, rather than testing just memory or stamina or exam technique.’ Equally important, as the attainment of degrees depends on how many modules each student completes, the modular curriculum allows students to plan their studies in a more personalized manner than they were entitled to under the previous curriculum. ‘You can pace yourself in your own way as long as you complete your modular requirements. Some people can go faster, while others go slower. Many would like to go overseas for attachments and student exchange. Some of their work there would also be counted. It gives them more options.’ The merits of the modular curriculum captured the attention of Dr. Chew and his colleagues, for whom the next step was to change the curriculum at NUS into a modular one. To do so, they must look at the ways in which some overseas universities had been operating their modular curricula and must search for useful and practicable takeaways for NUS. Simultaneously, in order to give students more opportunities to participate in overseas programmes, the start of the academic year was shifted from July to August or nearer to September, aligning with that of Western universities. ‘So these were the changes we had to do, and they had to be done by stages, because there were some students still under the old system, and others matriculating under the new system -- so there had to be administrative changes – and we had to ensure that there would be a smooth transition to the new modular system.’ Ultimately, owing to the efforts of Dr. Chew and his colleagues, these changes were introduced, and thus NUS has become one of the top schools offering modular curricula. As Head of the History Department and then Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Dr. Chew played a vital role in the creation of fully fledged courses in Military History and Southeast Asian Studies. When Dr. Chew was lecturing in the Department in the 1970s, the then Minister for Defence, Dr. Goh Keng Swee, felt that ‘when people finishing National Service come to the university, they should be able to study subjects like Military History, which helps them and others to make some sense of what they've been doing.’ Hence, Dr. Goh gave the Department the mission of introducing Military History courses in the University of Singapore. This was a challenging task for Dr. Chew, whose knowledge of military history arose mainly from his PhD thesis which had chapters on the Second Anglo-Afghan War, and the defence and security of the British Raj. To introduce these courses, he needed to know military history as an academic discipline. ‘So this is what I explored - to find out not only what was taught to professional soldiers in military academies and staff colleges, but also how military history was being taught as an academic discipline in universities.’ To enhance his own understanding of the teaching of military history, Dr. Chew made trips to various American military academies and universities, while based at the Harvard-Yenching Institute where he spent an academic year. As he built up the curriculum, Dr. Chew believed that the NUS Military History courses would allow students to explore such a discipline from wider angles, rather than from the basic ‘ABC’ aspects – Arms, Battles, Campaigns. ‘In the university you try to approach it in a more academic way. The causes of war, the types of war, and war in relation to politics, society, and economics -- to show the linkages of warfare and life, and international relations.’ As for Southeast Asian Studies, although discussions of creating such a subject area in NUS preceded Dr. Chew’s time in office as Dean of FASS, he made a crucial decision during the construction of the subject. ‘My contribution was that I insisted that they have to learn at least one language. For Southeast Asian Studies I said make it Bahasa Indonesia because Indonesia is the largest country in Southeast Asia.’ Indeed, Dr. Chew saw the important links between languages and societies, and made full use of such links. Familiarizing themselves with a regional language, students would gain more insight as they learn about the region’s history, culture and sociology as a whole. Dr. Chew’s contributions to NUS will feature as markers in the school’s history. Concurrently, given the importance of NUS in Singapore’s educational landscape, Dr. Chew can be recognized as a prominent tertiary educator in the nation. In addition, given his expertise in history, Dr. Chew is a well-recognized local historian as well. His liking for history probably started early, though he might not have been fully aware of his talent in the subject. ‘As I look back, in my home my parents encouraged a lot of table talk about past events and experiences which our family went through, such as the hardships of the Japanese Occupation. There was a historical perspective given to us as we grew up. As a Christian, I read Bible stories, [and the] different kinds of history and historical literature in the Bible made me interested in the history of different countries.’ As years passed by, he developed a love for history. Perhaps special thanks are due to the example of Mr. Earnest Lau, who was Dr. Chew’s history teacher in secondary school and was an inspiring figure to him. ‘[Mr. Lau’s lessons] did not have too much content, but it's the way he told stories, or he conveyed his ideas which was very interesting.’ Dr. Chew believes a good teacher not only transmits knowledge but also inspires a love for knowledge, a love for the subject, and a love for the whole educational enterprise. When he was in Pre-U, he already had a clear idea that history was one of his favourite subjects. To him, history exemplified objectivity and honed his analytical and critical-thinking skills. As he went on to the University of Singapore, he became more passionate about the subject than ever before. According to Dr. Chew, the way history was taught in tertiary institutions when he was a college student is quite different from the method used now. Dr. Chew points out that due to the ‘knowledge explosion’, teachers nowadays usually give students some suggested book titles as the latter look for references for their essays and assignments, whereas teachers in his History Department emphasized more on independence and would most likely not offer such assistance. ‘Independence’ is probably the most suitable word to describe the way Dr. Chew managed his studies at Sintah. ‘I read beyond the course topics. I went to explore theories of history, the philosophy of history, and other areas on my own because I felt that if I was going to be a historian, I needed to have “the idea of History” as a whole, the rationale behind the discipline.’ He pondered questions such as ‘what is history?’, and he considered the significance of the different levels of ‘history’ – ‘history as it happened, history as it’s written, history as it’s learnt’. He sought to look for the different meanings of history and different layers of it. ‘So these are things I explored in the university, which turned me into a historian.’ Knowing Dr. Chew’s strong academic credentials, it may be hard for one to imagine that he had a double promotion while in primary school, which became a set-back because he was a rather playful young boy. He did not put much focus on academics, and even in secondary school, he ‘was not fully stretched’. He only began to show some academic aptitude in Pre-U, where he was placed second in his class based on his ‘A’ Level results. Perhaps Dr. Chew’s early experience as a ‘late developer’ led to some of his insight regarding certain policies in Singapore’s education system, such as the streaming policy. ‘One size does not fit all... You need different streams. I’m well aware that streaming had also its negative results as well as positive results because streaming started a bit early sometimes… some people may fall through the cracks.’ Nonetheless, despite such loopholes, Dr. Chew still thinks positively of his country’s education system which is widely recognized as one of the most exceptional in the world. Throughout the past few decades, both Dr. Chew’s vision and his action have made him a true pioneer in the history of NUS, as well as a prominent figure in Singapore’s educational landscape. His contributions to the nation’s education system, together with those made by other educators, flow like streams. Gradually, these streams converge, gain strength and eventually rejoice in a vast ocean called Education, where an even more promising future is afloat, waiting for Singapore. (Interviewed and written by Heyi Jiang of Hwa Chong Institution)