Anne Pakir Department of English Language and Literature National University of Singapore Singapore email: ellannep@nus.edu.sg English in Higher Education and the Global Knowledge Enterprise

"Ascendant English-knowing bilingual communities" (Pakir 2003, 2004) have emerged in recent years against the backdrop of English as a global language. In Asia, among the countries that show varying degrees of this phenomenon are Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore within the Southeast Asian context, and India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan within the South Asian context. A study of the similarities and differences in using English as the medium of instruction in higher education in these countries would yield useful data about the importance of the language in higher education.

In Singapore, a perceived benefit of using English as the medium of instruction at university level is that it is of paramount importance to the education and research thrusts, while preparing students for entrepreneurial and global roles. This study describes the key role of English in helping to build universities as 'global knowledge enterprises' and preparing student populations for the 21st century. At one end of the spectrum of issues is the employment of talented foreign academics from non-English medium countries and how they can best perform their roles in English-medium universities. At the other end is the issue of developing bilingual and bicultural elites in ascendant English-knowing bilingual communities.


Pakir, A. 2003. Which English? The Nativization of English and the Negotiations of Language Choice in Southeast Asia. In Anglophone Cultures in Southeast Asia: Appropriations Continuities Contexts, edited by Rudiger Ahrens, David Parker, Klaus Stierstorfer, Kwok-Kan Tam, pp.73-84. Heidelberg.

Pakir, A. 2004. Medium-of-Instruction Policy in Singapore. In Medium of Instruction Policies: Which Agenda? Whose Agenda, edited by James W. Tollefson and Amy B.M. Tsui, pp.117-134. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.


Anne Pakir (NUS) serves on editorial boards, including the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, World Englishes, the International Journal of Multilingualism, and Current Issues in Language Planning. She is also a TOEFL Board Member (2004-2009).