The intention of creating a world class university out of the National University of Singapore, incorporating the University of Singapore and the Nanyang University, is indeed a praiseworthy one. However, it is appropriate at this juncture to remind ourselves and fellow Singaporeans that Singapore has completely no natural resources except manpower resource, and for this reason the National University of Singapore must be geared towards the training of manpower needs to meet Singapore's economic restructuring. However, the doubt expressed by some University of Singapore students on the worth of the National University of Singapore degree is indeed a natural one and is to be expected. However, I believe that this doubt will eventually be dispelled in due course as, hon. Members will recall, with the case of the Malaysia-Singapore Airlines when MSA was split into MAS and SIA. There were doubts whether SIA could make the grade, and indeed today SIA is well-known all over the world for its efficiency and reliability. This is due to a great part on good leadership, team spirit and staff loyalty. Similarly, with Singapore's top leadership and some fine brains behind the setting up of the NUS, I firmly believe that the NUS will make the grade and become one of the world's finest universities. At this juncture, Sir, I wish to raise a few points for consideration. Facilities for research and facilities for teaching must be made readily available to the University staff and University students. I note in clause 7 of the proposed Bill that the Hon. Minister for Finance is empowered to make grants-in-aid to the University and that monies received by the University can be used for the University for all or any of the purposes of the University. At this point, I would say that it looks fine on paper. How much the University gets for research is another matter. Here, I would like to express my doubts on the civil service, at least in my experience with the civil service where there are lots of bureaucratic arrangements so much so that I feel compelled by my conscience to humbly suggest to the Hon. Minister for Finance to be more open-handed in giving grants-in-aid to the University. At the same time I would also like to advise the University administration not to be too tight-fisted with the monies they receive; and at the same time not to delay purchases of equipment so much so that by the time they are purchased, they become out of date. In my limited experience with graduates from local universities, I have oft-times come across complaints from those who have done a basic degree, say, in Science. They say that they have not been given sufficient experience and that they have not been given the opportunity to handle equipment that are so necessary to put students into the swing of being able to apply modern analytical techniques in their future work. A more sympathetic approach would ensure students are given opportunity to handle equipment which will assist in their understanding of whatever subject taught. A point just crosses my mind, and here I would like to refer to the allocation of funds to the different departments in the University. There must be no pet department. I hope the University administration will bear in mind that they must allocate funds equally to all departments concerned. This will ensure good quality graduates from all our departments. If funds are insufficient, then it is up to the University administration to admit that there are insufficient funds and make a justification for the request. Over the past few months, Mr Speaker, Sir, there must have been discussions on the quality of some of our local graduates. True, it is indeed important to produce graduates that can measure up to the expectations of a society that is fast advancing. It is heartening to note that the Vice-Chancellor of the University himself is also the Hon. Minister of Education. With one capable man in two very important positions, he is the only man who can design the type and quality of graduates that we will produce in future right from the very start, hopefully. We must continually remind ourselves that it is very important that kindergarten education and primary education do play a part in nurturing sound habits, especially in building up the moral fibre of our future citizens. We must be able to inculcate in our students good attitudes, like taking an interest and pride in whatever they do, for example, by encouraging more student-teacher rapport or by encouraging more project work in schools rather than the all-examination system. Furthermore, the educators must make it their business to stimulate in our students a yearning for intellectual development which means moving away from teaching methods that kill creativity, whether in the schools or in the universities. Without a proper foundation, we will just be producing graduates below our expectations - graduates with little or no imagination and commitment applied to their work. Besides, no matter how many expatriates we bring in to raise the standard of teaching in our University or to expose students to the varied approaches and cross-fertilization of ideas, we will not be able to succeed if the students we channel into the University are not properly prepared to receive University education. On the other hand, if we assume that our students are properly prepared to receive University education, from the Pre-University centres and from the junior colleges, then no matter how fine our students are, the quality of the students or the quality of the graduates will only be as good as the quality of the staff that are in the University. So the idea of employing expatriate lecturers to supplement and to improve the quality of teaching at the University is a good one. I would, however, like to touch on a few rather sensitive areas regarding the employment of expatriate staff. Having myself studied in a foreign country and having worked for 15 years with expatriates, I believe I should be able to raise a few points either for consideration or of interest. Allow me to start off by saying that there are good and bad expatriate staff, just as we have good and bad local staff. To my mind, the chances are that it will be easier to employ an expatriate staff from a less advanced country than an expatriate gaff from a more advanced country. It is therefore unnecessary to discuss the attraction of expatriate staff from the less advanced countries. As for the more advanced countries, I leave it to the Hon. Minister to work out the break-even point where an expatriate from an advanced country would consider the remuneration offered large enough to pack up and come over. To my mind, we may find that we have to pay substantially more than the world market price to attract the real good ones. This is what I mean by break-even point. Suppose we limit our discussions to attracting lecturers from, let us say, Great Britain. Then my obvious question would be, "What is the calibre of the lecturer who would decide to come to Singapore?" What is bugging my mind is that the really good ones who are currently doing research with access to all the advanced facilities that are available in his university may not be prepared to pack up and come. Unless the National University of Singapore can provide the same facilities and the same research environment, i.e. the facilities plus cross-fertilization of ideas, plus students, etc.. then we might not be able to attract the real good ones. But perhaps the younger lecturers or the not-so-good ones might probably decide to come to Singapore for a stint to see what the East is like. I am not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing, but our students may not be able to derive greater benefit than if they had been exposed to more experienced and better lecturers. It therefore behoves the board of selectors or whoever are doing the interviews, to be able to devise a selection system where they can reliably separate the sheep from the goat, knowing that the cultural confidence that some foreigners have over members of the selection board may probably influence their selection. This confidence does not necessarily reflect ability. If the remuneration and the research environment are good, then we would have created an environment for competition where we will probably be in a position to select the better people. Again this would come back to our financiers. I hope we will not commit the same crime or the same sin with regard to financing the useful projects. As a point of caution, Sir, may I suggest that the quantum to attract an expatriate must be clearly indicated in the expatriate allowance, meaning that expatriate or local, both will be on a common salary scale, but the expatriate would have more salary because of his expatriate allowance. I presume, therefore, that if an expatriate decides to take up Singapore citizenship, then he would lose his expatriate allowance. The reason why I say this is that I feel that local and expatriate lecturers must be made equally happy. In our pursuit to attract good expatriate lecturers we must ensure that the welfare and happiness of our local lecturers are catered for. Obviously, one of the results of a relatively large expatriate population in the University would be an inflow of ideas of foreign origin. Some will be good whilst others will not be good for our society. There is, therefore, a compelling necessity to monitor our moral education programme taught in schools very carefully because there may be some teachers who still do not take it seriously. Our students must be properly prepared to distinguish the good from the bad and, therefore, able to reject ideas which may be detrimental to our society. Again, the Hon. Minister of Education is just the right man for the job. Before I take leave, Sir, can I just say a few words on staff assessment? Local or expatriate staff, I believe that both types of lecturers must be assessed in some way. Can we not allow our students to assess lecturers by having them answer questionnaires, either during the University semester or two or three years after University, or a combination of both, so that we will know what is expected from lecturers and how lecturers can assist their students.