The plight of local Singaporean professors

A local Singaporean professor sent an email to former NTUC Income CEO Mr Tan Kin Lian to relate the sorry plight of being local professors in Singapore.

The message is originally posted here but I shall repost it here.

Dear Mr. Tan

For those who are academically inclined, one common dream is to become a university professor. For many countries in the world, this is a position worth aspiring to as professorship carries prestige and comfortable income. For Singaporeans who aspire to become professors in Singapore, it is sad to say that based on the happenings in a local university over the last few years, they found it a nightmare.

In this university, many Singaporean professors have been fired when they reach the age of around 55 (much lower than the national retirement age). Many of these professors have contributed to the development of the university for more than 20 years. And to add insult to injury, many of the university management who decided to fire them are actually foreigners.

When the university recruit new professors, many of them are also foreigners and some of them are in their 60s or even late 60s. As the university is heavily subsidised with Singapore money, is it not more logical to hire Singaporeans so that the money is invested back to Singaporeans? Instead, the money is now used by foreigners for their career advancement or retirement outside Singapore.

This situation is particularly sad as Singaporeans have worked very hard to accumulate this wealth. So why let foreigners enjoy the fruits of Singaporean labour? And to add to the irony, many of the Singaporean ex-professors do not have enough savings for their retirement. They have to make a career switch at the age of 55 – is this not a nightmare? Even though this situation has been going for quite some time, it is not a lost cause. The Singapore government can reverse the situation to demonstrate that they truly place Singaporeans first.

Local professor

Pretty sad.