PSC Chairman letter

The Quest for Diversity

7.    The PSC has always sought to ensure that public servants should have a variety of expertise and background to help solve the country’s diverse needs and problems. The PSC does not force diversity on candidates for diversity’s sake. We do not have rigid quotas for different countries, universities or courses, but bear in mind the interests and inclinations of the candidates themselves when making offers. This must be so because our very top candidates today have many other scholarship options available, including bond-free scholarships from some top American universities.

8.    In its early days, PSC sought diversity by sending its scholars to study in different countries, as well as in Singapore. Our top scholars studied mainly in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, mostly financed by the Colombo Plan. Some also went to Germany, France, Japan, and later on to the US and China. (The PSC launched the China Scholarship Programme in 2009 and nine scholars from our first batch have graduated and are now doing their Master’s in the US.) The attempt to continue to send our scholars to countries other than the UK and the US continues today, and the PSC encourages applicants to consider studying in such “non-traditional” countries. In the last ten years, only about 7% of our scholars studied outside US/UK/Singapore, both as undergraduates and graduates. We would really like to see more doing so. Our scholars should see value in putting themselves out of their comfort zones to gain unusual experiences. They should not regard higher education as an exercise to collect degrees from renowned universities to burnish their CVs.

9.    Yet another way of ensuring diversity is to send our scholars to study a variety of courses. Over the last 10 years, 42% studied Econs/PPE[1]/Law, 31% studied Science/Math/Engineering/Medicine, 25% studied Liberal Arts/Other Arts/Humanities & Social Sciences, and 2% studied Finance/Business Admin/Accountancy. We would start to worry if the variety of courses narrows significantly.

10.    We also like to see our scholars study in different universities, rather than only in the well-known Ivy League universities or Oxbridge. Public officers are, and have always been, judged by their performance on the job, not by the pedigree of their academic credentials. The Permanent Secretaries at the top of the Public Service have never come from only the Ivy League universities or Oxbridge. Those aspiring to be public servants should realise that their performance will often be enhanced if they can bring a new perspective to help tackle a public policy issue, gained by their stint in a “non-traditional” university or “non-traditional” country.

Guarding Against Elitism

11.    The PSC is also acutely conscious of the need to have public servants coming from all socio-economic classes, lest we end up breeding a class of elitist public servants who lack empathy. While it does not follow that only those with a less fortunate background can empathize with the poor, a Public Service comprising only the privileged and upper classes will add to the impression that meritocracy leads to a lack of social mobility in Singapore. I believe that we should level the playing field for our students to have equal chances of winning scholarships, but the way to ensure this is to help the less advantaged throughout their school lives, starting from pre-school, and not by discriminating against the well-off when they appear before the PSC. Not only is it too late, it will also be harmful.

12.    A good proxy indicator of social-economic class is what schools these candidates come from. The PSC continues to reach out to students from different schools and backgrounds in our outreach efforts. These efforts have ridden on prevailing educational changes and broadened our intake of scholars in recent years. Over the last 10 years, 68% of scholars came from RI and Hwa Chong, peaking in 2007 at 82%. In the last two years, they comprised 60% of the total cohort. In 2002, the first Polytechnic student was awarded a PSC Overseas Merit Scholarship. Students from JCs such as Pioneer, St. Andrew’s and Nanyang are also starting to receive scholarships. They no longer rule themselves out from applying, on the mistaken belief that they have no chance. This trend will continue as our top talent continues to spread throughout our schools. There will always be top schools which are more popular than others. There is nothing wrong in this, so long as they continue to take in students from all socio-economic classes, and the overall landscape allows students from other schools a chance to enter and rise to the top in any career, including the Public Service.

13.    This emerging diversity has not been achieved at the cost of ability. High standards have been retained and PSC only awards scholarships to those who truly deserve them. We continue to subscribe to meritocracy and do not practise affirmative action or positive discrimination.