work out for wt loss and decline in cognitive

NEW YORK – Growing up in the Netherlands, Ms Henriette van Praag had always been active, playing sports and riding her bike to school every day.

In the late 1990s, while working as a staff scientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, she discovered that exercise can spur the growth of new brain cells in mature mice. After that, her approach to exercise changed.

“I started to take it more seriously,” said Dr van Praag, now an associate professor of biomedical science at Florida Atlantic University. Today, that involves doing CrossFit and running 8 to 9.6km several days a week.

Whether exercise can cause new neurons to grow in adult humans – a feat previously thought impossible, and a tantalising prospect to treat neurodegenerative diseases – is still up for debate.

But even if it is not possible, physical activity is excellent for your brain, improving mood and cognition through a plethora of cellular changes, said Dr van Praag.

Exercise offers short-term boosts in cognition. Studies show that immediately after a bout of physical activity, people perform better on tests of working memory and other executive functions. This may be in part because movement increases the release of neurotransmitters in the brain, most notably epinephrine and norepinephrine.

“These kinds of molecules are needed for paying attention to information,” said Dr Marc Roig, an associate professor in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy at McGill University. Attention is essential for working memory and executive functioning, he added.

The neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin are also released with exercise, which is thought to be a main reason people often feel so good after going for a run or a long bike ride.

The brain benefits really start to emerge, though, when people work out consistently over time.

Physical activity improves cognitive and mental health in all sorts of ways. ILLUSTRATION: NYTIMES

Studies show that people who work out several times a week have higher cognitive test scores, on average, than people who are more sedentary. Other research has found that a person’s cognition tends to improve after participating in a new aerobic exercise programme for several months.

Dr Roig added the caveat that the effects on cognition are not huge, and not everyone improves to the same degree. “You cannot acquire a super memory just because you exercised,” he said.

Physical activity also benefits mood. People who work out regularly report having better mental health than people who are sedentary. And exercise programmes can be effective at treating people’s depression, leading some psychiatrists and therapists to prescribe physical activity.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week is a good benchmark.

Perhaps most remarkably, exercise offers protection against neurodegenerative diseases.

“Physical activity is one of the health behaviours that’s shown to be the most beneficial for cognitive function and reducing risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia,” said Associate Professor Michelle Voss, who specialises in psychological and brain sciences at University of Iowa.

How does exercise do all that? It starts with the muscles.

When people work out, they release molecules that travel through the blood up to the brain.

Some, like a hormone called irisin, have “neuroprotective” qualities and have been shown to be linked to the cognitive health benefits of exercise, said Dr Christiane Wrann, an associate professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School who studies irisin.

Good blood flow is essential to obtain the benefits of physical activity. And, conveniently, exercise improves circulation and stimulates the growth of new blood vessels in the brain.

“It’s not just that there’s increased blood flow,” Prof Voss said. “It’s that there’s a greater chance, then, for signalling molecules that are coming from the muscle to get delivered to the brain.”

Once these signals are in the brain, other chemicals are released locally. The star of the show is a hormone called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, that is essential for neuron health and creating new connections – called synapses – between neurons.

“It’s like a fertiliser for brain cells to recover from damage,” Prof Voss said. “And also for synapses on nerve cells to connect with each other and sustain the connections.”

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A greater number of blood vessels and connections between neurons can actually increase the size of different brain areas. This effect is especially noticeable in older adults because it can offset the loss of brain volume that happens with age. The hippocampus, an area important for memory and mood, is particularly affected.

“We know that it shrinks with age,” Dr Roig said. “And we know that if we exercise regularly, we can prevent this decline.”

Exercise’s effect on the hippocampus may be one way it helps protect against Alzheimer’s disease, which is associated with significant changes to that part of the brain.

The same goes for depression – the hippocampus is smaller in people who are depressed, and effective treatments for depression, including medications and exercise, increase the size of the region.

So, what kind of exercise is best for your brain? The experts emphasised that any exercise is good, and the type of activity does not seem to matter, though most of the research has involved aerobic exercise.

But, they added, higher-intensity workouts do appear to confer a bigger benefit for the brain.

Improving your overall cardiovascular fitness level also appears to be key. “It’s dose-dependent,” Dr Wrann said. “The more you can improve your cardiorespiratory fitness, the better the benefits are.”

Like Dr van Praag, Prof Voss has incorporated her research into her life, making a concerted effort to engage in higher-intensity exercise. For example, on busy days when she cannot fit in a full workout, she will seek out hills to bike up on her commute to work.

“Even if it’s a little,” she said, “it’s still better than nothing.” NYTIMES

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wt los

NEW YORK – About five years ago, when she was 39, Australian actress Rebel Wilson faced a dilemma.

She had just had a string of successes, having made US$20 million (S$27 million) for her comic roles in Pitch Perfect 3 (2017), Isn’t It Romantic (2019) and The Hustle (2019).

But a visit to a fertility doctor had filled her with self-doubt.

Her weight – then about 102kg – could make it harder to retrieve viable eggs, the doctor suggested. After the appointment, she was devastated and called her talent agent, and said she planned to get healthier.

Her agent was not thrilled.

“The agency liked me fat because they got hundreds of thousands of dollars in commission for each film where I played the fat funny girl,” she writes in her new memoir Rebel Rising.

Losing weight, she worried, could jeopardise her “multi-million-dollar pigeonhole”.

In Rebel Rising, which Simon & Schuster released on April 2, Wilson details her struggles with food addiction and writes with disarming candour about intimate episodes from her life.

Raised in a suburb of Sydney, Australia, as the eldest of four, Wilson had an unconventional childhood: Her family ran a pet product business and bred show beagles, and she had her first brush with show business as a junior dog handler when she was eight.

Success did not come easily. She was rejected five times from Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art, and auditioned for nearly 30 screen roles in Hollywood before she was cast in the 2011 comedy Bridesmaids, a performance that launched her film career.

The memoir has already generated controversy, particularly her account of making the 2016 comedy Grimsby – released in the United States and Canada as The Brothers Grimsby – with Sacha Baron Cohen.

Wilson writes that during filming, the English actor-comedian made her uncomfortable by asking her to appear nude in the film (they hired a body double instead).

She also alleges that he urged her – when they were in character and filming a sex scene – to stick her finger up his rear end, which she refused to do, while others who were present recorded the encounter on camera phones.

Through a representative, Baron Cohen, 52, has denied Wilson’s account.

“While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence, including contemporaneous documents, film footage and eyewitness accounts from those present before, during and after the production of The Brothers Grimsby,” a representative of Baron Cohen said in a statement.

Rebel Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen in Grimsby. PHOTO: GOLDEN VILLAGE

There are also stunningly personal revelations in Rebel Rising. Wilson writes about being a late bloomer who lost her virginity at 35. She details her secret romantic relationship with a female professional tennis player, her experience of meeting and falling in love with her fiancee – fashion entrepreneur Ramona Agruma – and having a baby with a surrogate.

In a recent interview in midtown Manhattan, Wilson spoke about how her weight loss has affected her career and public image, and fighting for her Pitch Perfect 3 payday.

Have you experienced any negative repercussions or backlash from the weight loss?

There were some people who were, like, “Oh, we don’t think she’s funny any more” or “Now she’s lost me as a fan because I can’t relate to her any more”.

But I think if they read the book, they will understand my journey with weight and health. Obviously, I have a sweet tooth. That is my vice. And in times of stress, I’d dealt with it by eating. I don’t think that will ever go away.

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Which parts of your memoir are you most anxious about going public with?

The part about losing my virginity at 35. That was something that absolutely nobody knew. And I was, like, “Should I put it in the book?” But then I thought, “Maybe there will be other people out there who were late bloomers who might find solace in that fact about me.”

Because really, there was nothing weird or wrong with me. It was just growing up in a very Christian background, and then not really wanting a relationship and focusing on my career. And then I thought: “If I’m doing a memoir and writing about everything, I’m just going to put that here as well.”

Probably the biggest headlines out of the book so far have been your description of working with Sacha Baron Cohen, who you say humiliated you on set. He has disputed your account and, recently, footage of the scene that was not in the movie and which shows you acting out the sex scene together in character, has been published by The Daily Mail. What do you make of his response?

I’m sure they are never going to release the iPhone footage of him asking me to do it, to insert my finger up his a**, and me saying, “No, why are you doing this? Why are you asking me to do this? Where’s the director?” Of course, they are not going to release that footage.

What is your response to his denial?

Just knowing his character, I obviously expected that. I knew he was not going to take it, proverbially, lying down. This is not about cancelling someone. It is part of my story – my memoir. And I’m allowed to write about what happened to me and how that made me feel.

You are very frank about money and describe how you were able to negotiate US$10 million for Pitch Perfect 3 after you learnt that the studio did a market research survey that showed how much people loved your character Fat Amy.

Universal Studios are incredible, but did they make a ton of money from the Pitch Perfect movies? Yes. So, despite me absolutely loving all those folks at Universal, did I use that leverage to my advantage? Yes. And in the eleventh hour, I go, “You know, that’s a lovely offer of US$9 million. But I need one more to make it 10.”

That’s a big milestone when you’re an actor. To receive an eight-figure offer, for a woman, is huge. Sometimes, women don’t like to talk about that. Whereas I don’t think the guys have any issues saying they get US$20 million a movie.

You also write about a strange experience that inspired you to seriously pursue acting, when you were living in South Africa and got malaria and had a vision.

It was a full-blown hallucination that I was an actress and I had won an Academy Award. It changed the whole trajectory of my life. When some people would say, “But how did you keep going?” or “You always seemed to have this self-belief”, I would go, “Because I saw it happen.”

I clung to that, despite the constant rejections and how hard it was, starting in the theatre and performing when there might be 10 people in the crowd. But I saw it, that I was going to be successful. And coming to America, I mean, the odds of making it in the entertainment business, first in my own country, then in Hollywood – I think the odds are better that if I were a guy, I could make it to the NFL. It’s millions and millions to one, but I thought I was the one. There are plenty of Australian actors who are way better than me and haven’t made it over here.

Maybe because they did not get malaria.

They didn’t have the malaria vision. NYTIMES

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health is impy

Mr Graham Ambrose has never felt stronger. He can barbell back squat 145kg for four sets of six repetitions and bench-press more than 100kg for a single rep. His friends and colleagues notice that his clothes fit tighter, and he’s fond of posting mirror selfies on Instagram.

But Mr Ambrose isn’t a Gen-Z attention seeker: The 55-year-old is a managing director at Goldman Sachs Group. The London-based equity franchise sales specialist also has his own podcast, where he waxes lyrical about the benefits of picking up heavy things alongside his personal trainer who calls him “G-dog”.

A Goldman MD is not exactly man-of-the-people, but many will find Mr Ambrose’s fitness experience more relatable than that of influencers in their 20s who don’t have as many work and family commitments. His message is one that finance workers absolutely need to hear, and it couldn’t come at a better time.

People who spend their working lives trying to manage risk in return for long-term financial gain often fail to apply those lessons to their own health. That’s partly because balancing personal well-being and professional success can be difficult in an industry that valorises long hours and now wants workers back in the office. But while finance hasn’t become a walk in the park, there is more awareness of the need to keep physically healthy and mentally resilient.

And strength training should appeal to bankers, as the payoff in terms of well-being – and ultimately longevity – can be profound.

The good news is Mr Ambrose is increasingly preaching to the choir. When we Zoomed in January, he said clients and colleagues pepper him with questions about his routine and that “recently it’s been very difficult to find a free squat rack in the Goldman gym”.

Indeed, he isn’t the only Goldman weight-training evangelist. Mr Jonny Fine, head of global investment-grade debt at Goldman, posts videos on Instagram of himself deadlifting at cult New York gym Dogpound, where an annual membership costs up to US$36,000 (S$49,000). (Mr Fine’s personal best barbell deadlift is 183kg for one rep, he told me via e-mail.)

American Psycho satirised bankers pumping iron for aesthetic reasons in the 1980s, but the reality was often an intense, high-stress and largely sedentary job whose long hours were punctuated by boozing and drug-taking.

Former Citigroup trader Gary Stevenson’s recent memoir The Trading Game describes the exhaustion, chest pains and depression that led him to quit the bank in 2014, aged 27. As recently as 2021, junior Goldman employees were still complaining about 100-hour work weeks, little sleep and deteriorating physical and mental health.

Nowadays, though, most banks have top-notch fitness facilities and some even provide workout clothes. It’s not uncommon for finance professionals to train with clients rather than go for a steak dinner.

‘Genuine change’

“You don’t need to ask permission to go to the gym because you’ll see your manager there too,” says Mr Ambrose. “It’s a real, genuine change in the way people are interacting across the (Wall) Street. It’s also incredibly unifying: The boss could be learning to squat, while a first-year analyst is squatting 160kg.”

The tone at the top has improved too. Goldman boss David Solomon talks about his early morning exercise habit, while Morgan Stanley’s executive chairman James Gorman admitted in 2023 to struggling with nausea-inducing stress early in his career, which he defeated by getting much fitter.

Mr Kim Fournais, CEO of Denmark’s Saxo Bank, is a fan of weightlifting and krav maga (a notoriously intense self-defence method), while the boss of Deutsche Bank’s investment arm DWS Group, Mr Stefan Hoops, carries around a chest expander and hits the weight room most mornings (his one-rep max bench press was 140kg when a German finance podcast inquired in 2023).

Of course, finance types aren’t the only ones to have caught the gym bug. A big chest and washboard abs have become as essential as owning a yacht for Hollywood actors and tech billionaires like Mr Jeff Bezos and Mr Mark Zuckerberg. But this isn’t only a pastime of the super rich and nor is it just a guy thing.

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A decade ago, it was rare to see women doing strength training. Partly this was due to a misperception that doing cardio was the best way to lose weight – in fact, having more muscle increases metabolic activity, meaning you burn more calories throughout the day.

There were also unfounded worries that lifting weights would make women bulky. But encouraged by inclusive strength-focused workouts such as Crossfit, aspirational imagery on social media and a wealth of advice accessible online, the ratio of women to men in the weights area of most gyms is now closer to 50-50. Fitness centres have responded by removing treadmills and elliptical machines and devoting more space to barbells and weighted sleds.

“There are definitely more women at the gym getting stronger, which is amazing to see,” says London-based equity research analyst Eleonora Dani, 38, who got started in 2015 after reading a Bloomberg Businessweek profile of a female Goldman banker who did Crossfit. “It seeded the idea that you can be a woman, be in finance and be strong,” she tells me by phone, requesting her employer not be identified. After losing 20kg and gaining 4kg of muscle in one year via a combination of personal training and Hyrox (a mix of cardio and strength training), Ms Dani can now deadlift 105kg for five repetitions.

If you think about the different aspects of weight training, it makes sense why Wall Street types would want to get strong. It helps that sessions can be relatively short: Unlike training for a marathon, a 45-minute strength workout is plenty. Building muscle also requires increasing the number of repetitions or weight each session, carefully planning meals and monitoring progress – something of a scientific approach that appeals to those in data-driven jobs. And there’s a huge sense of personal accomplishment when you finally achieve a goal like deadlifting double your body weight.

Of course, people lift weights to look good and feel more confident, but the benefits go far beyond bulging biceps. For Mr Mike Mayo, a banking research analyst at Wells Fargo, it was the ability to strengthen bones weakened by osteoporosis and combat age-related muscle wasting (sarcopenia) that sparked his pivot from running and cycling to powerlifting – a mix of deadlifts, squats and bench press.

There are also under-appreciated mental health and hormonal advantages. “Our finance clients typically have an imbalance of (stress hormone) cortisol due to the nature of their work. Having more muscle mass gives you more control over that stress response,” says Mr Mark Bohannon, a director at Ultimate Performance, an international chain of personal training gyms. (Ms Dani is a client.)

“Meditation can be hard for some finance types,” he adds. “But if you are squatting with 100kg on your back, I guarantee you are not worrying about your next meeting. You’re thinking: I’ve got to stand up now or this bar will crush me.”

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Naturally, some folks take things to extremes. Devotees of podcasters like Associate Professor Andrew Huberman, a jacked Stanford professor and neuroscientist, embrace whatever methods might offer a mental or physical edge, such as peptides, saunas and cold plunges.

But there’s no need to gobble dozens of supplements to get stronger. The main benefits come from doing the basics right: lifting weights three or four times a week, getting sufficient sleep and eating the right foods. That obviously requires planning, especially as banks demand staff back in the office and corporate travel picks up (hotel gyms don’t typically offer much in terms of weights).

“Nobody just finds the time to work out – it has always been something I intentionally schedule just like any other meeting,” says Mr Randy Giveans, a former Jefferies Financial Group research analyst who now has an investor relations and business development role at Navigator Holdings. The 39-year-old father of three meets clients or investors for workouts at least a couple of times a month. “You can talk business between sets, and it’s also a fun shared experience.”

But making the time is worth it. “This health movement in finance started partly due to increased productivity. People thought: I could stay up longer, I could read better, and I could be more alert! But then they noticed they were also getting on better with their families and kids and becoming better people,” says Mr Jason H. Karp, a former hedge fund manager turned entrepreneur. (This point about emotional well-being is echoed in Peter Attia’s excellent book Outlive.)

Rather than dread my 6am workouts, I now look forward to weight training. It’s satisfying getting stronger in my 40s and defying the decline that otherwise comes with ageing. Once I’ve picked up a heavy barbell, whatever else the day throws at me doesn’t feel as hard.

So I’m glad Mr Ambrose and his peers are making weight training more popular – but it will take further encouragement from employers to help finance professionals live healthier lives. If I’ve learnt anything from picking up heavy objects, it’s that progress comes one increment at a time. BLOOMBERG

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uni ranking pointless

A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail asking me to participate in an academic reputation survey for an organisation producing international university ranking tables. Soon after, The Straits Times reported that the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) had been rated the top universities in Asia based on the QS or Quacquarelli Symonds rankings by subject areas involving 1,594 universities in 93 countries and territories. A similar report in 2022 recapped how both also ranked well in the QS World University Rankings.

There are several other international ranking tables – like those published by Times Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and US News & World Report. A key claim made by these organisations producing such tables is that they serve as guides to help students select universities and courses. 

Many universities around the world await the publication of each round of ranking tables anxiously. They know the results come with high stakes, and may serve to boost a university’s international standing and inform its strategic goals. 

Prospective employers may watch these rankings closely as they make hiring or deployment decisions. They may also shape some prospective students’ decisions over what and where to study. 

These choices are increasingly vital as universities compete for students in the lucrative international student market. Market intelligence firm HolonIQ estimates that six million to nine million international students will enrol in foreign higher education institutions, with spending amounting to US$433 billion (S$575 billion) by 2030. 

Move to jettison international university rankings

Yet in more recent years, a number of prestigious US university law and medical schools – like those at Harvard (both of which ranked among the top 10 in their respective fields) – as well as a few undergraduate schools have withdrawn from the US News & World Report ranking tables.

The ranking system simply ran against key institutional values, including a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, they argued. 

Professor Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, former president of George Washington University, was also cited in a 2019 CNN report as saying that “schools feel pressure to game the rankings”.

How international university rankings are conducted

The reality is that such rankings are rarely scientific studies drawing clear conclusions. The trouble lies with the computation of scores.

Most focus on broadly similar performance indicators, albeit with differing weightages being accorded to the various indicators. 

The QS 2023 rankings used indicators relating to academic reputation (teaching and research quality), employer reputation (how well universities prepare students for successful careers, and which universities provide competent, innovative and effective graduates), faculty/student ratio, academic citations per faculty member, international student ratio and international faculty ratio. 

Part of this rankings data is also obtained through potentially subjective surveys based on sentiments or incomplete knowledge. The QS academic reputation survey is sent to thousands of academics around the world each year. Respondents are asked which country/territory and geographical region they are most familiar with. 

They are then asked to provide, among other things, their individual nominations of top domestic and international institutions they think produce top research in their faculty area.

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Brewing criticism over university rankings

Such international ranking tables have attracted a great deal of criticism from academic researchers and universities in recent years. 

In 2020, Malaysian academics Muhammad Ashraf Fauzi, Christine Tan, Mahyuddin Daud and Muhammad Mukhtar Noor Awalludin demonstrated how the methodologies employed in ranking exercises can be prone to flaws, in a journal article in Issues In Educational Research. 

Historically prestigious universities such as Cambridge and Oxford tend to have higher ratings. Western universities operating in English tend to receive higher rankings than their non-Western counterparts – even domestically prestigious institutions such as the National Taiwan University (ranked 77 in the latest QS tables) – reflecting the possibility that survey respondents tend to think of the more internationally prestigious universities that teach in English as superior. 

A second problem arises because these tables do not reflect the varied purposes of higher education. Differences in each university’s key objectives in research, teaching and community service, and the great diversity of programmes offered in universities worldwide make it a pointless exercise to compare apples with oranges, durians and tomatoes. 

A more poorly ranked university – such as Universiti Malaya – may excel in teaching or in other qualities contributing to nation-building compared with universities with higher rankings. Yet, such rankings compare different types of universities as though they are identical and accord equal weightages to all of their functions and educational offerings.

Even if we assume they are directly comparable, making the composite score meaningful, the nature of ranking tables magnifies minuscule differences in scores and separate institutions with similar scores by many numerical positions in the tables.

A third issue is that the tables fail to adequately indicate the processes and outcomes related to quality teaching and learning, and that students’ opinions are hardly, if ever, solicited in this regard. 

A fourth major criticism is the heavy weightage accorded to research and institutional reputation rather than focusing on teaching quality. Academic Woo Jun Jie argued in a 2018 CNA commentary that this skewed emphasis on research may come at the cost of teaching quality as universities seeking to ascend the ranking tables are incentivised to devote extensive resources towards boosting research outcomes at the expense of adult learning.

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askST: How can I make use of university rankings?

Some perspective on university rankings

Such rankings are rarely helpful for prospective students. The process of selecting a university, course of study and concentration, whether local or overseas, depends on a complex mix of factors.

Besides examination scores, personal interests and passions, parental aspirations and the amount of comprehensive information about the range of available options both within and outside of Singapore, other factors may include financial circumstances, family circumstances and peer influence. Some students may also consider fields that they believe are emerging areas of demand in the job market. 

Much also depends on a prospective student’s life stage and purpose in pursuing higher education. Individuals with full-time jobs deciding whether to embark on a degree programme might likely give more consideration to the pros and cons of a full-time versus a part-time degree, in view of the opportunity cost involved in forgoing their income, compared with students fresh out of junior college or polytechnic.

Adult students must think more carefully about the implications for their families and financial commitments in giving up a job for a full-time degree programme.

And what are students to think of those among the six publicly funded autonomous universities, as well as the programmes in the autonomous universities, that have not been highly ranked, vis-a-vis those that have? It would be patently ridiculous to assume that those in the former category are somehow inferior and not worth serious consideration on the basis of this one point.

In their 2017 CNA commentary, academics Pang Eng Fong and Linda Lim highlghted the lack of empirical studies linking university rankings with student outcomes such as post-graduation job placement or salary rates. They also noted that international students did not appear to prefer the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to the Singapore Management University (SMU) and other unranked universities, choosing their universities instead for a range of other reasons including costs and scholarship availability.

Singapore’s varied university landscape

University rankings are also less useful in aiding Singapore students to navigate the diverse local university landscape. 

The Ministry of Education (MOE) website indicates that these six universities can be grouped into two categories: more academically focused, research-intensive universities (the NUS, the NTU, the SMU and the Singapore University of Technology and Design, with the first two being comprehensive and the next two being specialised) and those that provide applied-degree pathways, with more hands-on experience and industry exposure (the Singapore Institute of Technology and the Singapore University of Social Sciences). 

In addition, there are also a number of programmes by private educational institutes such as the Singapore Institute of Management and Curtin University.

The diversity of providers within Singapore in terms of their institutional missions and programme offerings cannot possibly be captured in the ranking tables.

Thankfully, the QS website acknowledges the rankings are merely a starting point that cannot replace individual decision-making based on further research and information-gathering through exploring university websites, speaking to alumni and attending open-day events. Students should do their own homework rather than rely on ranking tables to light the way for them.

Similarly, employers today consider a range of other factors besides these institutional rankings when assessing the merits of job applicants and current employees. A range of non-academic skills and attributes – such as leadership qualities and communication abilities – not covered by the ranking tables matter. 

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Growing emphasis on upskilling and mental health

These ranking leagues are even less useful for local autonomous universities, as the educational landscape evolves to embrace larger goals of creating more pathways to success and empowering individuals to reach their fuller potential through upskilling.

A prominent theme emerging in recent years in Singapore discourse is that of broadening the definition of success, and moving away from a meritocracy of grades towards a meritocracy of skills. 

There is an official drive to encourage multiple entry points to study for Singaporeans from varying ages and backgrounds, while making sure that a university education remains accessible and affordable. MOE has encouraged universities to provide students with options to customise degree programmes and expand the range of modules for adult learners. Another theme is the need for individuals to take charge of their learning.

In addition to the need to promote an understanding of, and interaction with, the world beyond Singapore, other issues include the encouragement of interdisciplinary learning and the need for universities to nurture graduates who define success in terms of their contributions to the wider society. 

For this to work, cooperation rather than competition among the local universities is needed.

Speaking at the Straits Times Education Forum in February 2022, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing urged the six autonomous universities to operate as a single team, collaborating with one another and building on one another’s strengths. His remarks contrast with the tendency for the ranking tables to engender a zero-sum game mentality, where one university’s rise is accomplished only at another’s fall.

On another front, the recent Covid-19 pandemic has brought into focus the importance of addressing issues related to students’ mental well-being. The pandemic has also left in its wake questions about the adequacy of home-based learning as an alternative to face-to-face instruction, thus highlighting the importance of examining the merits of diverse instructional modes.

The autonomous universities have to, therefore, move beyond the limits imposed by international ranking tables, pursue their distinctive educational missions and find fields where cooperation with the rest is of mutual interest. 

While the results of ranking exercises may prove helpful in the short term in terms of boosting institutional prestige, attracting research funding and attracting prospective students, it makes more sense instead to set independent priorities in the light of more pressing national priorities.

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A Singapore ranking table?

Some have asked whether MOE should devise its own ranking tables for the autonomous universities based on criteria more attuned to the Singapore context. 

An immediate question would be the extent to which these desired outcomes can be quantified, when such ranking tables have proven poor in lending themselves well to quantification and measurement.  

A related question concerns the desirability of subjecting the universities to yet more ranking, a practice likely to leave universities, students and employers grappling with yet more issues related to the adequacy of the ranking tables, at a time when secondary school and junior college rankings have been abolished.

In the final analysis, it is probably time for all of us to break the habit of reading more into the international ranking tables than they can tell us about what really matters in higher education. 

This includes higher education’s primary functions at both the individual and collective levels: as a means of personal growth and development, a vehicle of social mobility and national prosperity, and a driver of service for the wider public good.

Jason Tan is Associate Professor in Policy, Curriculum and Leadership at the National Institute of Education.

2027 o level exam schedule

SINGAPORE - This year’s Secondary 1 students will be the first to sit their national examinations under one common timetable in 2027.

They will sit the new Singapore-Cambridge Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) examinations in 2027 instead of O- and N-level examinations, said Education Minister Chan Chun Sing on March 1 in Parliament.

This comes after the removal of streaming into Normal and Express in secondary schools in 2024, and the implementation of full subject-based banding, where students take subjects at varying levels according to their strengths and interests.

With the change, students will have one written exam sitting for their mother tongue language (MTL) subject and will not be able to retake the exam, said Mr Chan during the debate on his ministry’s budget.

Currently, students are able to choose from two exam sittings for MTL, one in the middle of the year, usually in the first week of the June holidays, and the other during the O-level written exam period, usually in November.

“I understand that some may be concerned that they will have one less chance to improve their MTL grades,” said Mr Chan.

“But we need to strike a careful balance between striving for excellence, chasing the last mark, and allowing our students to learn at a better pace.”

“When we introduced the mid-year O-level MTL exam sitting in 1980, less than 40 per cent of students passed both their first and second languages,” Mr Chan noted. “So we allowed students to take their MTL exam twice, to meet the second language requirement for pre-university.”

Today, almost all O-level MTL students meet the language requirement with their first sitting, he said, adding that taking the second sitting changed the post-secondary posting outcomes for less than 2 per cent of those taking the MTL exam.

“The new system will allow our students and teachers to better pace the MTL curriculum, with four more months of learning, rather than to squeeze everything into less than 3½ years in preparation for the June sitting,” said Mr Chan.

Students will sit their English and MTL written exams in the second week of September – one month ahead of other subjects to spread out the exam load, he added.

There will also be one common exam period for the written papers of other subjects, starting in October.

Currently, N-level exams are held in September, and O-level exams in October.

Results for the SEC examinations will be released in January the following year.

Currently, N-level results are out in mid-December and O-level results are released in mid-January the following year.

The SEC will continue to be jointly awarded by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and Cambridge, said Mr Chan.

“Let me state that if we see our worth as being defined by exam results only, removing the PSLE will not remove stress. Neither is removing all stress our goal,” he said.

“We need to understand that exams like the PSLE and SEC are not an end in themselves, but a means to help our children find a suitable learning environment in the next stage of their education journey.”

Changes to Edusave awards

MOE will also expand Edusave awards to recognise non-academic attributes, said Mr Chan.

From 2024, Eagles, which stands for Edusave Award for Achievement, Good Leadership and Service, will recognise students’ 21st-century competencies, or skills identified as essential for the future.

These include critical, adaptive and inventive thinking, communication, as well as civic, global and cross-cultural literacy, across both curricular and co-curricular activities.

Eagles will also be expanded to Primary 1 to 3 pupils, who were previously not eligible.

Up to 5 per cent of this group can qualify and receive an award of $200 each.

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The yearly quota for the award for Primary 4 to pre-university students will be increased from 10 per cent to 15 per cent.

With the expansion, an estimated 18,000 additional students could be eligible for Eagles each year. Currently, about 25,000 students receive the award yearly.

The Edusave Skills Award – which recognises excellent professional and soft skills, along with good conduct – will be expanded from 10 per cent to 15 per cent of students in the graduating cohort.

It will also be given to 5 per cent of students in their penultimate year.

The award is available for Crest Secondary School, Spectra Secondary School, specialised schools, polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education.

About 3,400 more students are expected to benefit from the enhancement.

Mr Chan said these changes will bring the balance of academic and non-academic awards given out to about 60:40, compared with the current 70:30 ratio.

“This signals our commitment to reducing the overemphasis on academic results, and balancing that with better preparation of our students more holistically for the future,” he said.

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lose in mt Chinese from 2027

SINGAPORE – From 2027, students graduating from secondary school will no longer take the O- and N-level examinations. Instead, they will sit the Singapore-Cambridge Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) examinations.

The first batch of students taking the new exam are those in Secondary 1 in 2024.

With the complete implementation of full subject-based banding (FSBB) in 2024, these students take subjects at different levels based on their strengths and interests.

With the SEC, they will sit the national examinations under one common timetable, with the written exams for English and mother tongue languages held in September and the written examinations for the rest of the subjects from October to November.

There will be only one written exam sitting for the mother tongue language (MTL) subject, instead of the current two.

The SEC exam results will be released in January the following year.

With FSBB, the polytechnic year 1 admission criteria from 2028 will also change to recognise learning at different subject levels.

Will the new SEC exam have the same format and rigour as the O- and N-level exam?

There will be no change to the examination format and standards, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Education (MOE).

The SEC examinations will continue to be jointly examined and awarded by the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board, MOE and Cambridge International Education.

Students will receive a certificate that reflects the subjects and levels they were taken at.

Under FSBB, students take subjects at three levels, known as G1, G2 and G3, mapped from the previous Normal (Technical), Normal (Academic) and Express standards respectively.

The first cohort of graduating students in 2027 will take the SEC examinations at their respective subject levels.

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Will my child lose out if he can’t retake the MTL exam?

Currently, students can attempt their MTL exam twice, once in the middle of the year and the other towards the end of the year, during the O-level written exam period.

From 2027, students will have just one chance to take the exam, said Education Minister Chan Chun Sing, who announced the changes in Parliament on March 1.

He said that when MOE introduced the mid-year O-level MTL exam sitting in 1980, less than 40 per cent of students passed both their first and second languages.

The change was made then to allow students to take the exam twice, to meet the second-language requirement for pre-university.

Today, about 97 per cent of students meet the minimum MTL requirement of at least a D7 during the O-level mid-year examination, said MOE.

Mr Chan said that with the MTL written exams held in the second week of September, students and teachers would have four more months of learning.

The MOE spokesman added that over the years, there has been an increasing proportion of students whose first MTL sitting is their best attempt, while fewer have chosen to take the second sitting.

Furthermore, any grade improvement in the second sitting changed the post-secondary posting outcomes only for less than 2 per cent of the cohort who took the O-level MTL exams.

Students who do not meet the MTL progression criteria will continue to be granted provisional admission, on the condition that they meet the requirement at the end of year 1 in JC or year 2 in Millennia Institute.

With FSBB, there are more opportunities for students to customise their learning and offer subjects at a level more suited to their strengths, interests and learning needs, including for MTL, said the spokesman.

Why are there changes in the polytechnic year 1 admission criteria from 2028?

Under the current polytechnic admission criteria, students are required to offer five O-level (G3 equivalent) subjects.

The subjects include English Language, two relevant (R) subjects and two best (B) subjects, or more commonly known as the ELR2B2 aggregate score. This will continue to be used from 2028.

To recognise learning at the different subject levels, the polytechnic year 1 admission criteria will be changed when the first batch of students to sit the SEC exam enter a post-secondary institution in 2028.

By then, students can offer one “best” subject taken at either G2 or G3 level, with the remaining four subjects offered at G3 to ensure that they can cope with the academic rigour in the polytechnics.

With this change, all students will be assessed on a common benchmark of four G3 and one G2 subject instead of five G3 subjects.

Students who offer both “best” subjects at the G3 level will have the one with a lower grade mapped from G3 to G2.

As a result of the relaxation of one “best” subject from G3 to G2, the aggregate score into polytechnic year 1 will be revised from 26 to 22 points.

“The updated criteria will better recognise the different subject levels offered by students and provide options for different learner profiles, while ensuring that students have the foundational competencies to thrive in their chosen pathway,” said the MOE spokesman.

There is no change to the existing junior college admission criteria to ensure that students have the academic foundation to cope with the A-level curriculum. 

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jp top notch svc

TOKYO – Dr Shingo Takashima was an aspiring doctor working towards his dream job at a top hospital in Kobe when he died, aged 26, on May 17, 2022.

His mother Junko, 61, found his lifeless body and a farewell note that read: “I’m all to be blamed. I’m so sorry to give you such pain... I’m at my limit and I have no choice.”

His suicide, which was judged by manpower authorities as karoshi (death by overwork), has become both a cautionary tale and a rallying call for change. Not only had he faced an uncompromising superior and worked 100 days straight without a single day off, but he was also found to have clocked 178, 169 and 207 overtime hours in the prior three months. To give some perspective: these figures are on top of the regular 40-hour work week – eight hours a day, five days a week works out to 160 hours a month.

The unrelenting work pressures, in particular the punishing overtime hours, that pushed Dr Takashima over the brink are a troubling feature of the Japanese healthcare system. A 2022 Japan Doctors’ Union survey found that one out of two respondents were concerned about the impact on their own health – an irony as their role is to restore the health of others; three in 10 doctors admitted to having entertained thoughts of death and suicide.

Doctors are joined by construction workers and truck drivers in clocking the longest working hours in Japan where, unsurprisingly, there has been a spate of tragedies across the three professions. The exceptionally smooth running of services for which Japan is renowned – and not just in these three sectors – is facing a reckoning as a result of rising demand and concurrent labour shortages. The practice of crushing overtime hours has kept the system going, but even that is hitting the buffers, and one is looming next month.

Overtime limits will kick in for the medical, construction and logistics industries from April, with errant employers facing fines of up to 300,000 yen (S$2,700) or jail of up to six months.

These are part of workplace reforms passed in 2018 following a spate of high-profile karoshi deaths.

The limits had first gone into effect in 2019 for large companies, and then in 2020 for small and medium-sized enterprises. The latest phase involving those in the medicine, construction and logistics sectors is happening only now, given their expected outsized impact on society.

The overtime cap is well-meaning, but questions remain on its effects. At heart, Japan has to ask itself: What price is it prepared to pay for its widely admired first-rate services?

Taken for granted

That the situation has come to be framed as a “2024 problem” speaks volumes of a country that has taken efficiency for granted: cheap round-the-clock medical care, same-day or next-day deliveries, and a breakneck pace of construction exemplified by how, in one remarkable case, a gaping sinkhole measuring 30m by 27m by 15m was filled in 48 hours.

Such supposed efficiencies have been built on back-breaking, unlimited overtime.

In medicine, there have long been far too few doctors to go around, and far too much bureaucracy. Japan’s 339,623 doctors mean there are 269 physicians per 100,000 people, which is lower than the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) average of 350 doctors per 100,000 people.

In construction, given tight and rigid project timelines, Japan’s 4.79 million construction workers often clock overtime.

The entire logistics industry, meanwhile, is built on 870,000 truckers who ply long distances over long hours. Road transport accounts for 90 per cent of freight in Japan.

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While the overtime caps come April look good on paper, the government has written into law a series of exceptions that reduce the impact of the changes.

For instance, under the new rules, construction workers can work up to 45 monthly overtime hours, capped at 360 annual overtime hours. However, the limit may be raised or scrapped under “exceptional circumstances”, such as natural disasters.

One such exceptional case may be the 2025 Osaka World Expo, whose organisers have sought to be excluded from the law as it is drastically behind schedule despite the opening date of April 13, 2025.

For truck drivers and doctors, the ceiling will be capped at 960 annual overtime hours or an average of 80 monthly overtime hours. But an allowance for more hours is being made for physicians in rural areas, which are already under-served in terms of services.

Will the caps help the people for which it is intended? Some say while it will go some way towards reducing overtime work, it is cutting things fine. The 80-hour monthly limit – setting aside exceptions – is no different from the so-called “karoshi line” – the point which Japan has designated as the threshold for death by overwork.

Hardly a panacea

But there is more to the overtime culture. One reason is Japan’s stagnant wages.

A low base pay for truck drivers and construction workers incentivises them to work more overtime to earn more money. Said Moody’s Analytics senior economist Stefan Angrick: “Overwork creates problems for individuals and society at large, including issues related to health. It also reduces the incentive for companies to invest in technology and automation.”

Many workers have said that if companies fail to raise wages accordingly to make up for the reduction in overtime pay, they will seek side hustles to make up for their lost income – which will defeat the very purpose of the law.

A 28-year-old truck driver told public broadcaster NHK in Fukuoka en route to Ishikawa Prefecture – 900km and at least a 10-hour drive away – that his take-home pay was up to 400,000 yen (S$3,600) a month. “I want to earn more, but my working hours will become shorter,” he said. “I might use my extra rest time to get another job.”

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In construction, civil engineering lecturer Kazuyoshi Tateyama of Ritsumeikan University sees the need to change a mindset that has turned work systems into victims of their own success. “Design was systemised, standards were established, and manuals were completed. And this allowed Japan to build high-quality infrastructure in a short period of time,” he said. “But this success formula also makes it difficult to transition.”

In medicine, the Labour Ministry has highlighted activities that are time-consuming but are not regarded as overtime. These “voluntary self-improvement” practices include the practice of surgical procedures as well as preparation and participation in academic conferences that are necessary for resident doctors who hope to become specialists – like the late Dr Takashima.

Dr Kenji Shibuya of The Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research think-tank noted sardonically – and rightly – that the very future of Japan’s medical profession hinges on such critical activities that are diminished as “voluntary self-improvement”.

Yet even discounting such “voluntary” actions, a Health Ministry survey has shown that one in 10 doctors already works more than 1,860 overtime hours a year, while four in 10 put in more than 960 hours.

Finding solutions

Solving the “2024 problem” would, first and foremost, require consumers to manage expectations.

This means, notwithstanding the e-commerce boom, being prepared to pay a premium for urgent deliveries – or wait for their turn in line. They should also avoid late-night hospital visits for non-emergency cases that have come to be described as “konbini diagnoses”, so-named after convenience stores that provide round-the-clock services.

Meanwhile, given the crippling labour shortage, one fix would be to hire more women and foreign workers, especially in construction and logistics. While it has traditionally been difficult to attract women, the labour shortage means a fundamental rethink of gender stereotypes is required.

In construction, women already account for three in 10 workers. While the percentage is paltry in logistics – 2.5 per cent, or about 20,000 truckers are women – Transport Ministry data shows that 134,000 women have a heavy vehicle licence. There is already at least one logistics company with all-female drivers: the Fukui City-based Heartful, which operates 22 vehicles.

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Japan already allows foreign workers in construction under its blue-collar skilled worker visa, which it is looking to expand to cover the road transportation sector.

The medical profession faces other hurdles. Foreigners would require a higher level of language proficiency. As for women, who account for 17.4 per cent of doctors, sexism continues to be rife. Top medical schools have recently been found to have systematically rigged entrance exams to make it harder for women to qualify, given the historically high female attrition rate.

Yet another urgent step would be to drastically increase wages to make blue-collar jobs more appealing and ensure workers do not end up worse off than before.

A third critical element is innovation. In logistics, an NX Research Institute study has found that if nothing is done, capacity will decline by 400 million tonnes – or 14.2 per cent – in 2024 and 940 million tonnes – or 34.1 per cent – by 2030 from 2019 levels.

This would effectively upend life as Japanese residents know it, impacting everything from the delivery of fresh produce to markets and the stocking of shelves at convenience stores, to the supply of parts to factories and same- or next-day deliveries to homes.

Japan is looking at expanding freight delivery through ships and trains – including the shinkansen bullet train – as well as drones and robots.

To ensure truck drivers get to their destinations faster, the government is even mooting raising the highway speed limit for large trucks to 100kmh from 80kmh.

Rivals are even joining hands to reduce duplication of effort and improve efficiency, with home appliance makers Sony and Hitachi, as well as paper manufacturers Daio and Hokuetsu, working together on customer delivery.

Logistics facilities are also automating the loading and unloading process. Daiwa House Industry and NTT Communications have developed an unmanned logistics system to smooth operations and reduce hiccups that is said to reduce man-hours by 30 per cent.

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Elsewhere, drones, surveillance sensors, and remote-controlled equipment like excavators are being rolled out in construction, with the government looking into banning contracts with unrealistic timelines.

Hospitals are looking at “task-sharing” measures such as allowing doctors to delegate tasks such as the administration of intravenous fluids to trained nurses, and paperwork to medical clerks.

But Dr Shibuya, along with Dr Takashima’s bereaved family, is urging the Labour Ministry to implement stronger guidelines against excessive overtime in medicine, including a relook at what constitutes “voluntary self-improvement” given that unrested doctors are prone to diagnostic errors and other mistakes.

Criminal and civil lawsuits are pending against the 460-bed Konan Medical Centre, which has refused to acknowledge culpability by arguing that Dr Takashima had put in 30.5 hours of overtime – rather than 207 hours – in the month before his death.

“Doctors are neither Superman nor robots,” Mrs Takashima said, adding: “Would it be OK if a pilot flies a plane on 200 hours of overtime a month?”

Helplines

Mental well-being

Institute of Mental Health’s Mental Health Helpline: 6389-2222 (24 hours)

Samaritans of Singapore: 1-767 (24 hours) / 9151 1767 (24 hours CareText via WhatsApp)

Singapore Association for Mental Health: 1800-283-7019

Silver Ribbon Singapore: 6386-1928

Tinkle Friend: 1800-274-4788 

Chat, Centre of Excellence for Youth Mental Health: 6493-6500/1

Women’s Helpline (Aware): 1800-777-5555 (weekdays, 10am to 6pm)

Aware’s Sexual Assault Care Centre: 6779-0282 (weekdays, 10am to 6pm)

National Anti-Violence and Sexual Harassment Helpline: 1800-777-0000

Counselling

TOUCHline (Counselling): 1800-377-2252

TOUCH Care Line (for seniors, caregivers): 6804-6555

Care Corner Counselling Centre: 6353-1180

Counselling and Care Centre: 6536-6366

Online resources

mindline.sg

eC2.sg

www.tinklefriend.sg

www.chat.mentalhealth.sg

carey.carecorner.org.sg (for those aged 13 to 25)

limitless.sg/talk (for those aged 12 to 25)