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Honorary doctor tells top universities to shout about their achievements

Singapore’s Ambassador-at-Large Chan Heng Chee has been discussing how universities should continually strive for recognition in today’s global higher education market.

ambassador_at_graduation_2.jpgThe ambassador was awarded Hon LLD (Honorary Doctor of Laws) by the University of Warwick on Tuesday 14 July.

Speaking in a podcast recorded just before she was presented with the honour she stated that top universities should never presume that they are as well known internationally as they are at home.

She used America’s top universities as examples of HE institutions that continually communicate their work internationally. She said: “All universities are competing for a mindshare – they want students.

“You’ve got to explain yourself. No Ivy League university in the United States sits back and doesn’t run programmes to introduce themselves to other countries.”

She praised the work of WMG, one of the academic departments of the University and one of the world’s leading research groups, and added: “It’s good to put out what your achievements are.”

Ambassador Chan was Singapore’s ambassador to the UN and then ambassador to the United States from July 1996 to 14 July 2012. She was the first Singaporean woman to become an ambassador. She chairs the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities in the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). Recently she was appointed to the International Advisory Group of the MIT Center for Advance Urbanism at SUTD. She is also Chairman of the National Arts Council and a member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights.

PR 157 14 July 2014

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Listen to the whole interivew here