Yale’s Singapore college has become embroiled in a row about academic freedom after axing a course on dissent, with the controversy fuelling a wider debate on whether universities are compromising their values to expand abroad. The Yale-NUS College, a partnership with the National University of Singapore, opened in 2013, drawing criticism from activists and its own faculty over the decision to set up in the city-state, due to its restrictions on civil liberties. Such fears intensified last month when the liberal arts college axed a week-long course called “Dialogue and Dissent in Singapore” a fortnight before it was scheduled to start, prompting concerns the school was censoring some topics.
