The direction where Singapore is headed

Singapore still does not accord enough recognition to the arts and humanities. Many bright-minded students with deep passions in the humanities end up succumbing to what is commonly known as the herd-mentality. Courses such as business and law have an indescribable air of appeal to them : notably, the powerful image of corporate rat-race as well as the presuppositions that these are where all the "big bucks" lie. In the end, what we see is a disproportionate amount of students pursuing degrees of which they have little to no prior knowledge. Nor do they know exactly what degrees in finance and law really entail. This results in a vacuum in the humanities faculty and an overall decrease in the quality of humanities students.

This misallocation of resource is disconcerting, to say the least. Singapore needs a fair amount of intelligent, passionate arts students in order to thrive. In other major education hubs such as the USA and the UK, students with inclinations in the humanities will almost naturally pursue it to tertiary level, a phenomenom that is seldom seen in Singapore. One possible reason is that the social perceptions and stigma that usually comes along with an arts degree in Singapore do not exist in the States or the UK. In Singapore, an arts degree is perceived as a "soft" degree that does not wield the economic earning potential. There is also a widespread impression that arts faculties are usually "dumping-grounds" for the least academically-inclined students. These impressions, however egregious and misleading, do much to perpetuate the trend of pursuing "elite" subjects such as business in Singapore.

In the UK and the USA, prospective undergraduates are able to hone their interest in various huumanities courses in top instituitions such as Harvard, Yale or LSE. In these countries, there is not so much a marked distinction between an arts degree and a science degree as one between a good student and a poor student. Employers in other countries are more receptive towards arts degree graduates, namely because bright students go on to further their interest. What do I mean exactly by this?

Let me illustrate. The brighter students with interest in the humanities are more likely to pursue "elite" subjects such as accountancy and law. This results in a skewed ratio of bright students between the elite courses and the arts courses. Hence graduates