Warwick lecturers vote No to Singapore campus

Senior lecturers at Warwick University have voted against setting up a branch campus in Singapore be-cause of worries about limits on academic freedom in the country.

The vote is a blow to the city-state's ambitions to become a regional hub for higher education. It comes in the week that the outgoing US ambassador to Singapore warned in a farewell speech that Singapore's limits on expression might cause the government to "pay an increasing price for not allowing full participation of its citizens".

Singapore requires international educational institutions operating in the city-state to agree not to conduct activities seen as interference in domestic affairs.

The 27 to 13 No vote by Warwick's senate this week is believed to be the first time a foreign university has rejected the conditions set by Singapore. Although the lecturers' vote is non-binding, it is likely to put pressure on the university council to abandon the Singapore plan when it makes a decision on October 18.

Warwick and Australia's University of New South Wales are the only two foreign universities selected by Singapore's Economic Development Board to set up a full-scale campus.

In an effort to treble the number of students in the next decade to 150,000, Singapore has succeeded in attracting smaller schools operated by several top institutions, including the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Faculty and students at Warwick have questioned the costs of the almost £300m project and the ability to attract quality students and staff to the Singapore campus. But criticism has focused on limits on academic freedom and civil liberties. Warwick recently wrote to the EDB asking for its Singapore students to be exempted from laws limiting freedom of assembly, speech and the press, and removal of bans on homosexuality and certain religious practices on campus.