ASSOCIATION OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES, SINGAPORE
MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE REPORT 2007

Dear APSC Members,

I am happy to report that as we enter our twentieth anniversary, our association has made a number of significant changes which indicate our coming of age. First, our new name as the Association of Private Schools and Colleges reflect our enhanced status and role in the private education industry.

The year under review saw us taking on two new initiatives, namely the challenge of increased professionalism, through the adoption of a new Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct; and the drive towards greater organizational effectiveness of our member PEOs. The successful implementation of these and other new initiatives will help define the new landscape of the private education industry in the Republic, characterized by greater self-regulation, and a more transparent quality assurance process based on best practices It will also pave the way for the accreditation of our members’ academic programmes which should result in greater marketplace confidence in our value adding services.

In the process, APSC will have to be a Learning Organisation. Functionally our work in this direction will be supported by a full-time secretariat; hopefully, with the financial support of the relevant ministries through the Local Enterprise and Association Development (LEAD) programme.  

In this context, the association views the recent developments surrounding the closure of some private schools as the appropriate outworking of the rationalization and consolidation the education industry in Singapore. It comes in the wake of the successful implementation of regulatory measures for better student welfare protection (CaseTrust) and consistently high professional and quality management and quality systems (SQC). Both are designed to discipline players in the industry which do not measure up and force them out of the market place. It gives a new meaning to the concept of consumer sovereignty as on the one hand, students of non-performing schools now have recourse to action and recalcitrant Schools have been and will be taken to task; on the other hand, it recognizes their right to access and attain quality academic qualifications.

APSC shall continue to play a helpful and significant role in looking after student welfare. Our Self-Help Scheme (Annex A), implemented in conjunction with, and having the support of relevant authorities provides displaced students with a mechanism they can turn to for alternative routes to continue with their studies and to achieve their educational goals.

During the year, we introduced a new Membership Certificate (Annex B) to be issued to all current members. This certificate highlights the high professional standards and practices expected of its members befitting the association’s status as the key Private Education Industry Association. We hope that all member schools will proudly display the association logo in all their communication materials.

We have also systematized a more stringent process of new member admissions. Firstly, all new members will have to be sponsored by an existing APSC member. All applications shall be reviewed by the Membership Sub-committee and the Chairperson of this committee shall recommend the new member/s for the approval by the Management Committee. All new member/s will be initially classified as Associate members in their respective category; and will only be admitted into full membership at the end of their first year of membership subject to their meeting the full requirements such a membership entails.
A key milestone in APSC for 2007 is the introduction of APSC Accredited Programmes. The association will recognize member’s academic programmes (starting with higher education level) that are formally articulated with foreign universities that are accredited by mainstream accreditation bodies of the university’s home countries. All accredited Programmes shall be listed in our APSC web-site.

For a start, the mainstream universities will be those that are accredited by the UK QAA; AUQA for Australian universities; and the 6 regional accreditation bodies in USA, namely, Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC); Southern Association of Schools and Colleges (SASC); North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA); Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges (NWC); New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC); and Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges (MSA). All those from European countries shall be reviewed on case-by-case basis. Also well established tertiary level programmes from professional financial, accounting,  and management associations will be included in the review.
Eventually, APSC will inform all local and foreign government agencies of this web-page.

This is a bold step forward in endorsing and accrediting members’ programmes in a manner consistent with best practices and regional and/or national accreditations. All members are welcome to apply to have their programmes recognized for APSC Accreditation. (Annex C). Accreditation shall be made by the Education Sub-committee and approved by the Management Committee. 

The association has also been active in helping members showcase their programmes and services. Recognizing the importance of establishing a presence in newly developing countries, the association participated in the International Education and Career Exposition held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in April, 2007. The APSC pavilion at the exposition gave our nine participating schools valuable exposure in what has been billed as the largest education and career showcase of its kind in Vietnam with institutional representations from New Zealand, Australia, France, Singapore, United Kingdom, Thailand, Switzerland, USA, China, Malaysia, Cyprus, Canada and Vietnam.

In August 2007, APSC will participate in the Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET) National Conference held in Perth, Australia. ACPET has two key roles: as an industry association and a regulating industry body. Dr Tan Jing Hee, our Honorary Advisor, will attend this National Conference. Among other things, he will meet up with ACPET officials, to explore collaboration and affiliation between the two associations. Such working engagements and dialogues reflect the growing regional status of APSC.

As APSC moves into its twenty-first year in 2008, its newly adopted Code of Professional Conduct  (Annex D) will help communicate to the market place the serious pledge that all APSC members will discharge their responsibilities with integrity and with due regard to our specific obligations of all stakeholders.

With all these measures in place, APSC believes its initiatives in self-regulation, continuous quality improvement and marketplace and consumer responsiveness will not only complement the regulatory efforts already made by the authorities  but represent a significant step forward in the direction of further strengthening of the pivotal role played by the association in the private education industry.  

Our Charter Mark symbolizes our relentless efforts to join management and educational excellence to exemplary professional conduct and ethical behaviour. It becomes our comprehensive roadmap to performance par excellence that integrates the good progress already achieved by CaseTrust and SQC with our industry initiatives of Self-Help mechanism, Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, and Programmes Accreditation.
This, APSC believes, is the way forward in our longer term aspiration to contribute significantly as the key industry association to making Singapore a global hub of educational excellence.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Chua
President, APSC