International university academics and students stuck in limbo

The new academic year has opened at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, or NTU. But a number of international academics and students who have travelled outside Singapore during the pandemic have found themselves in a bind.

Some of the international faculty and students, who travelled abroad for a variety of reasons – including family emergencies, bereavement and care-giving responsibilities – are now unable to make it back before lectures begin. As work and student pass holders, they are required to apply to the government for approval before they can travel back to Singapore.

Until recently, entry approval applications for pass holders were not accepted unless the applicant had spent 21 days, before travelling to Singapore, in Brunei, Hong Kong, Macau, China or New Zealand.

As of 10 August, the Singapore Ministry of Manpower was to resume accepting approval applications from fully vaccinated work pass holders who have travelled to other countries and regions. There has, as yet, been no update about whether this will similarly apply to student pass holders.

Being stuck abroad does not seem like such a problem, at a time when remote working and online learning have become much more common. NTU’s own FAQs on COVID-19 state: “Between now till 20 August, lessons will generally be conducted online, unless otherwise advised. In-person lessons will resume from 23 August, barring any changes in the national COVID-19 guidelines.”

From my conversations with students, I understand that international freshmen enrolled in NTU this year have online learning as an option if they can’t make it into Singapore in time.

Unpaid leave and leave of absence

Yet the stranded academics say they’ve been told that, unless granted compassionate leave, they will not be allowed to teach their classes remotely, even if these online classes could technically be taught from anywhere.

The students – who are in at least their second year – also tell me that, once in-person lessons resume on 23 August, there will be no arrangement for them to do e-learning until they can return to Singapore.

This is the case even though classes with more than 50 people, which would be the case with many lectures, will still continue to be delivered online even after 23 August.

A few students told me that they were not allowed e-learning as an alternative even though their professors were, in theory, willing to accommodate their needs.

Instead, faculty stuck abroad have been told that, once their annual leave days are used up, they will be shifted to unpaid leave. While some classes can be covered by colleagues, other courses have been cancelled and students asked to register for alternatives.

Students, on the other hand, have been given deadlines – some in late August, others this past weekend – to apply for a Leave of Absence from the university.

If they apply for leave before the deadline, their fees will be refunded or deferred to the following semester. Failure to apply for leave could mean forfeiting fees and running the risk of failing as they continue to be absent from classes and unable to submit assignments or sit exams.

For this University World News story, I spoke to NTU faculty members abroad as well as those currently in Singapore. I was also in touch with international students struggling to obtain approval to return to Singapore after having travelled home during the break. Everyone I spoke to requested anonymity.

A deterrent effect?

Academics told me that, before leaving Singapore, they were required by NTU to sign undertakings to the effect that unpaid leave will apply if their allotted annual leave isn’t sufficient to cover the period they are away.

Students had to sign undertakings that they would be required to apply for a Leave of Absence if they did not return to Singapore before classes began.

One academic had to travel out of Singapore due to family obligations. S/he had planned on returning to Singapore before term time, but thought that, if anything happened, the contingency plan would be to teach remotely until s/he could get back. Instead, the classes have been cancelled and s/he has been placed on unpaid leave.

Despite being willing and able to work remotely, s/he is now facing a situation of having no salary but needing to continue paying rent for a university flat in Singapore. S/he has no idea when s/he will be let back into the country; it could be days or weeks from now.

Based on what I have been told, even academics who have been granted compassionate leave, and thus allowed to teach classes remotely, will be paid only for the days that they teach.

It is a decision that has been described as “bonkers”: based on this payment system, a professor whose classes are clustered within two or three days will be paid only for those days, while another with the same number of teaching hours, but with classes spread across all five days of the week, will receive full pay.

This also ignores the fact that academics do work, even on the days they don’t have classes, and that teaching online might even require more work in terms of planning and coordination than in-person lessons.

Students, too, have had to travel home for various reasons, from death in the family to homesickness after being without family in a foreign country for more than a year.

Although it is out of their hands whether they can travel to Singapore or not – granting entry approval is entirely up to the government – they are now facing the prospect of delaying their education and sitting out at least one semester simply because they chose to return home.

Both faculty members and students feel as if they are being penalised or punished for leaving Singapore. One academic felt as if these measures now affecting those stranded abroad are also meant to act as a ‘deterrent’ to dissuade people in Singapore from going anywhere.

Education or family?

It would, of course, save university administrators a lot of work if everyone were to just stay put and not go anywhere during the pandemic. But, as long as a university has a sizeable number of international staff and students, it is only to be expected that there will be people who need to travel.

While many, given the administrative hassle and uncertainty over changing restrictions, might choose to stay in Singapore, despite not having seen their families for a year-and-a-half, others have had little choice but to leave the country because they were needed elsewhere.

“We were asked to choose between our education and our families,” a student told me. “Nobody should be asked to make such a choice.”

During our conversation, a stranded academic emphasised that colleagues have been “incredibly supportive”, but expressed concern that those colleagues’ classes might be over-enrolled or that they might have to take on extra work to cover for those who are abroad.

However, those I spoke to who are currently in Singapore say they have not been asked to take on extra classes, although they acknowledge that the situation might be different in other universities or that the intake for some modules might increase.

Regardless of this current situation, the pandemic, itself, has required more work and emotional labour from educators trying to be mindful of students’ needs.

From what I understand, there are 30 NTU international students currently in India who are unable to return to Singapore and are in touch with one another. It is unclear if there are more, in India or elsewhere around the world. Similarly, I have not been able to get a verified number of faculty stuck overseas.

I have written to the university to ask if they have these figures as well as to seek clarity on those policies now affecting international faculty and students, but have not heard back. Indeed, I wrote to various universities and government agencies but have not received a response from any of them.

I have focused largely on NTU in this piece because most of my sources either work or study at that institution. It is likely that other universities in Singapore are seeing similar situations. However, each institution has its own policy in reaction to Singapore’s pandemic restrictions.

For instance, I understand that Yale-NUS College allows both international faculty and students stuck abroad to teach and attend classes remotely.

I have also written to other universities in Singapore – including the National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University and the Singapore University of Technology and Design – to find out what their policies are.

For now, though, members of NTU’s international faculty and student body continue to be stuck in limbo, losing out on salaries and education as they wait for Singapore to let them back in.

Kirsten Han is a freelance journalist from Singapore. This is an edited version of an article that was originally published on Han’s newsletter, We, The Citizens.