Events

CHAIRPERSON

Prof Ho Kong Chong, Asia Research Institute, and Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Johor is currently experiencing high speed mixed use development. A master plan was launched in 2006 under the Badawi administration the results of which are now beginning to show. From the Johor Bahru city centre to Iskandar Puteri down to the Western Gate Development of China backed Forest City and further to the Eastern Gate Development close to the Johor Port, the land area that is being developed today is vast in terms of scale and size. One of the nine core sectors that is being developed is Education, which consists primarily of private educational institutions set up purportedly to fulfill the talent development needs of the populations that are yet to move into these flagship developments. Educity Iskandar Malaysia located in Nusajaya was planned as a pioneering multi-varsity education hub that features universities, schools, research and development centers, student accommodation and sports and recreational facilities. The espoused aim is to be Asia’s leading regional education hub. My research investigates the role of education in the context of the urban development that is rapidly taking place, the justifications which I will outline using descriptions of observed parallel large scale developments in present day Johor. In a reinvention of the concept of town and gown, I will argue that education in particular higher education acts in a central, supportive, contentious and currently weak role in promoting their brand of state-supported urban development. My study also aims to expand the understanding of university-related spaces to include the spaces around a university’s delineated boundaries such as the business, industrial, recreational and living spaces around it.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

As an early career researcher, Melissa Wong is currently researching in the areas of urban studies, urban developments and its impact on higher education in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. She is now working on a project that investigates the impacts of political and economic decisions on higher education in the states of Johor, Wilayah Perseketuan, Selangor and Sarawak. On another project, she is exploring the possibilities of building transnational higher educational links between Malaysia and South Korea. Her doctoral research focused on undergraduate students academic literacies from the perspective of a practitioner-researcher, but she has since then moved on to research in higher education policy and development, regional and international higher education in Southeast Asia and Wider Asia.

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