How the Yale-NUS merger announcement could have been better handled

The announcement of National University of Singapore (NUS) merging Yale-NUS with the University Scholars Programme (USP) on 27 August has led to plenty of chatter amongst current students and parents of Yale-NUS students. This has resulted in education minister Chan Chun Sing stepping in to address the situation, especially in terms of how communications with certain stakeholders were handled by the NUS.

In a recent parliamentary question and answer session, Chan explained that the reason why students and parents were not informed was due to “sensitive issues” on strategy and finances, according to The Straits Times. Chan added that the decision to merge Yale-NUS came about during the discussions between the senior leadership and boards from the two universities in early June. 

According to multiple media reports previously including The Straits Times, students and parents said they were surprised by the announcement and some students were considering dropping out of the Yale-NUS component of the double-degree program in law. This also led to parents requesting face-to-face meetings with NUS staff with regards to the merger. After the merger announcement, more than 260 parents of current and former students at the college signed a collective letter asking president Tan Eng Chye for a townhall meeting to explain the reasons behind the decision. 

Initially, Tan refused a town hall meeting, and instead proposed a series of individual, face-to-face meetings with the parents. “Due to prior commitments, I will not be able to make it for the proposed townhall on Friday [...] However, I am pleased to separately arrange a virtual townhall next week," said Tan in The Straits Times. The exact date of the town hall meeting has not been set.  At the same time, The Straits Times also quoted three students saying that NUS' decision "lacked transparency and consultation with both faculty and students". The students added that the decision also showed a failure to care for the welfare of the staffs and students.

A petition was also created on Change.org to reverse the merger and end top-down decision-making and titled #NoMoreTopDown. A check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE found that the petition now has 14,570 signatures. The petition said, "We reject the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) recent merger decisions." It also added that students from various faculties of NUS have drafted this petition to voice their concerns with the policy and its implications. "This petition aims to hold NUS accountable for its own contradictions. We, therefore, demand #NoMoreTopDown approaches across the whole NUS."

In response to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, an NUS spokesperson said since the announcement on 27 August, it has been working closely with Yale-NUS and the USP to engage with their staff, faculty, students, and alumni to address their concerns and questions. “This continues to be our main priority,” the spokesperson added.

The spokesperson also said that the formation of the New College is part of NUS’s roadmap to deliver flexible, interdisciplinary education more accessible, and at a greater scale. This roadmap began with the formation of the College of Humanities and Sciences, announced in December 2020. The New College Planning Committee, which will include faculty and student representatives from both Yale-NUS and the USP, is developing plans for the New College, and more details will be available in the coming months. According to the NUS administration, the New College’s common curriculum will draw heavily on Yale-NUS’s groundbreaking program. 

In a separate press release from Yale, Tan said that the New College will offer students the opportunity to benefit from an immersive, interdisciplinary liberal arts education that very importantly offers greater access to multiple pathways, disciplines, and specialisations across the NUS ecosystem. "We’re delighted that Yale will continue to play an advisory role in the NC as a pioneering member of its international advisory panel. Yale has been a visionary partner in Yale-NUS College. We look forward to continuing our friendship, and exploring bilateral opportunities in research and education,” he said. 

What could NUS have done better in terms of communication?

While Singapore’s education minister eventually addressed why the students and parents were not initially informed, industry players felt that it was important to keep the stakeholders informed right from the start. 

Managing director of APRW, Cho Pei Lin, said that often organisations are faced with the dilemma to engage key stakeholders, and the need to ensure that news is kept confidential and not leaked. She added that for clients in such situations, where it may not be possible to engage an entire group of stakeholders due to the sensitivity of the matter, she recommends that dialogues and conversations be made with representatives of these key stakeholders. 

"For example, it could be with the unions, student councils, or parent committees which represent the people who matter to the brand," she explained. 

Similarly, Edwin Yeo, GM of Strategic Public Relations Group (SPRG), said while Minister Chan has explained why NUS did not engage staff and students over the matter, “It, unfortunately, resulted in sentiments that the university doesn’t care about its stakeholders”. Yeo added that while one can argue the merits of the decision, there is much to be learnt here about stakeholder engagement. He also notes that:

It is always a good practice to inform the people who would be the most affected before sending out a release to the media.  By doing so, the organisations shows that it understands who the stakeholders are, and it could also help shape public communications.

In this case, staff and students would be able to raise concerns that can be addressed in the public announcements. 

"Today, the public communications surround justifying the decision, from being unable to raise enough funds to sustain the school to the minister himself needing to explain the sensitivities in the university’s actions," Yeo added. With no updates from the school on the affected stakeholders, he said that students are now left wondering if this would devalue their employability, as it shows a school that no longer exists. 

“Surely, these concerns would have been made clear to the decision-makers had they engaged with the stakeholders prior to public announcements, and subsequent statements can then be centred around the fact that while they had no choice but to make this painful decision, they are also ensuring that staff and the student will be taken care of, and no current stakeholders will be adversely affected by this decision,” he added. Yeo’s daughter is currently a student at Yale-NUS.

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