Management Universities: Enhancing Value for Society through Collaboration

Higher education is provided by a range of institutions, besides the typical research university. What forms of private goods and public goods do these other institutions produce? Policy analysts have treated K-12 education as a “merit good”. Should  research and the higher learning produced by universities be treated as a “merit good”? Beyond purely economic contributions, what other “hard-to-quantify” benefits to society should be valued for policy-making and management regarding such institutions? Join Mr Sriven Naidu as he discusses these questions on the knowledge ecosystem and social communities enriched by research universities. He will also highlight the role of the Management University – more than a business school, and yet more focused than a comprehensive university. As described by a group of university leaders in EFMD’s GlobalFocus magazine, such specialised universities have evolved over more than a century in Europe, and also exist in Brazil, Japan and China. Management Universities typically complement comprehensive universities and technological institutes in national higher education systems. The transnational alliance described in the GlobalFocus article aims to collaboratively deliver ‘global public goods’ which include (i) socially-responsible, internationally-experienced managers, and (ii) interdisciplinary research with transnational relevance. These institutions are trusted creators, protectors and purveyors of both public value and private goods for society. Sriven will outline some distinctive and innovative programmes at various Management Universities. Examples include the University of St Gallen’s hallmark Contextual Studies component, and Singapore Management University’s path breaking Masters in Tri-sector Collaboration Programme.

Sriven’s career in Higher Education over the past 16 years has been distinctly wide-ranging. His understanding incorporates diverse perspectives from roles including ones at the Higher Education Division of Singapore’s Ministry of Education and the Board of Directors of LaSalle College of the Arts. He joined Singapore Polytechnic (SP) as a lecturer in 2000, where he also coordinated pastoral care, financial assistance and student leadership development at SP’s School of Business, before he was elected to serve on SP’s Board of Studies on the approval and review of diploma programmes. As Deputy Director in the Higher Education Division from 2008-2010, he supervised both the Policy section and the Quality Assurance section. He worked with former Ivy League Presidents and European university Rectors on the quality assurance exercises of Singapore’s Universities and Arts Colleges. Sriven also represented Singapore at meetings of the Asean Quality Assurance Network (AQAN) organised under SEAMEO-RIHED. Since 2010, he has served as SMU’s Director of Strategic Planning. In 2012, as part of the development of SMU’s Vision 2025, he led a study visit to St Gallen University, Universite Paris Dauphine and Copenhagen Business School. The study visit helped seed the formation of an alliance of Management Universities.