Engage in critical dialogue and problem solving through immersion into fundamental and perennial debates that cut across time and space
To engage with the world
Engage in critical dialogue and problem solving through immersion into fundamental and perennial debates that cut across time and space
At SMU, we believe our students have come to us not only to learn how to make a living, but to have their horizons expanded with knowledge about the myriad peaks of human inquiry, and to appreciate the full depth and scope of life.
Big Questions will take a theme every year, or a major global challenge broadly defined as a thesis and its (seeming) antithesis. Big Questions will introduce students to the challenging ethical, theoretical, and operational debates that attend to these themes.
Students in any given year will be able to choose from a menu of sub-themes, each using a different disciplinary lens and focusing on different aspects of the theme, while also sharing a canon of readings and attending public lectures dedicated to the year’s theme for a shared intellectual experience. The themes may include Happiness and Suffering and Wealth and Poverty.
Learning Outcomes
Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge
At the end of the course, students should be able to explicate different accounts of happiness and suffering from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.
Intellectual and Creative Skills
Students should be able to pivot agilely across disciplinary perspectives to survey the scope and scale of human activity and to critically assess the degree to which such activity facilitates happiness or suffering.
Global Citizenship
Students' will be able to problematise their value systems with regard to pursuing happiness and the disdain for suffering and, thereby, reformulate and defend their new worldviews.
SAMPLE COURSES
Annual Theme Overview
Overview
Attaining happiness and avoiding suffering are amongst the most fundamental and universal human experiences. On the one hand, we instinctively seek happiness (or pleasure, or desire satisfaction, or fulfilment), are persuaded to acquire various alleged passports to happiness, and are encouraged to share our happiness with and to promote it in others. On the other hand, we also instinctively avoid suffering, or we try to. Yet despite unprecedented prosperity in the modern world and a plethora of lifestyle choices before us, happiness sometimes appears fleeting and elusive, while suffering appears unavoidable.
Using philosophical, religious, humanistic, psychological, and scientific perspectives on the nature, significance, expression, causes and consequences of happiness and suffering individual and collective, this course will take students on a multi-disciplinary and integrated journey of exploration that will begin to unravel this foundational duality of the human experience.
Learning Outcomes
Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge
Explicate different accounts of happiness and suffering from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.
Intellectual and Creative Skills
Pivot agilely across disciplinary perspectives; be able to synthesise, draw parallels and contrast these perspectives as they are deployed to critically assess the degree to which a variety of human activities facilitate happiness or suffering.
Personal Mastery
By using the theories and lessons learned in this course, demonstrate critical self-awareness of their own efforts at promoting happiness and suffering, and to be able to articulate new steps they can take to supplement or enhance these efforts.
Overview
The pursuit of wealth in its various forms has been prominent throughout recorded history. The desire to accumulate resources is found across civilisations. Yet, should wealth be simply measured in economic and financial terms? Should poverty be only measured through the same lens? Many cultures promote the virtues of prudence and fortitude, peppered with ideals of justice and equality in its various guises. Wealth and poverty are often seen as diametric. Despite this, several traditions point to the need for thinking through forms of wealth (and poverty) beyond the conventional lens of economics, and to consider the pursuit of wealth of time, happiness, peace, relationships, and other elements that enrich the human experience. It is little wonder that in our contemporary age, several scholars have pointed towards the reprioritisation of wealth accumulation towards one that places happiness, health and other non-monetary goals as the ideal. In this course, we will be exploring substantially several forms of wealth (beyond the conventional), and to consider carefully the causes and strategies to address the challenges related to wealth and poverty in our contemporary world.
Through critical engagement with a variety of disciplines and empirical contexts, we will consider the intertwined phenomena of wealth and poverty in theory and practice. The course explores the value systems we attach to each, why, and with what consequences for ourselves and others. We investigate how our notions of wealth and poverty contribute directly to the construction of our identity as well as ideas about inequality, power, justice, progress, and more. In so doing, we look into the ways people, their customs, laws and culture respond to their perceptions and experiences of wealth and poverty; reflect on how they debate the purposes and outcomes of wealth and poverty; and discuss how they compete and cooperate for limited resources in our contemporary world. Also, we will study how our knowledge and conception of wealth and poverty may continually change over time. By the end of the course, students will have an expansive understanding of how these two phenomena come together in ways that structure and define their everyday lives.
Learning Outcomes
Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge
Become conversant with the various disciplinary discussions and debates concerning different conceptions of wealth and poverty.
Intellectual and Creative Skills
Move fluidly and critically between perspectives, synthesising and drawing comparisons/contrasts between them as they refine their perspectives about the intersections between wealth and poverty.
Personal Mastery
Problematize their value systems with regard to the accumulation of wealth and the disdain for poverty and, thereby, reformulate and defend their new worldviews.
Overview
The Ethics and Social/Corporate Responsibility Basket equips students with a strong foundation in ethical theory and its practical relevance across disciplines and professions. Students learn to evaluate competing ethical frameworks, understand their strengths and limitations, and apply them to real-world issues in both public and private contexts. They will also learn to recognize the ethical dimensions of everyday decisions, identify key stakeholders and associated risks, and justify outcomes with clear, reasoned analysis. In professional fields, students engage with ethical standards and responsibilities specific to their industry, understanding the expectations tied to their roles and the broader impact of their professions on society. This basket fosters a deep understanding of the role of ethics in society and the workplace, empowering students to navigate social dilemmas and contribute to stronger corporate and social governance with integrity and accountability.
Learning Outcomes
Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge
At the end of the courses, students should have a working understanding of established ethical theories; be able to explain their distinctive features, attractions and limitations; and be able to articulate their usefulness across disciplines. Candidates for professional degrees should furthermore be familiar with the standards to which these professions are held, especially in light of the role these professions play in society.
Intellectual and Creative Skills
Students should be able to recognize the ethical dimension of human activities on the domestic as well as international plane, in public as well as private life; be able to identify the stakeholders, interests and risks involved; and be able to apply appropriate ethical frameworks of analysis to articulate distinct justifiable outcomes.
Global Citizenship
Students should be able to internalize and recognize the place of ethics in society and the workplace; master the ability to work through social dilemmas to arrive at an ethically sound outcome; and demonstrate how ethics can be applied to strengthen corporate and/or social governance.
Courses
At SMU, we aspire to have 100% of our students embark on at least one global experience before graduating. Global traction and understanding underpins success in careers in today’s globally connected environment. To have global exposure from the vantage of a university education is invaluable for international networking and global vision; it also open doors to bigger opportunities. When students approach their global exposure opportunities with an enthusiastic and open mind, the benefits are immense. Academically, gaining a first-hand, real-world perspective of issues learnt in the classroom serves to deepen students’ learning and knowledge application. More importantly, the journey builds independence, empathy, open-mindedness, not to mention soft-skills like communication and teamwork. These attributes not only build character and personal development, but also give students an edge when they are seeking employment and advancement in the competitive workplace. To make sure no student misses out on this precious global experience, the University is committed to giving global exposure participation an extra push by enhancing support and by providing more (and new) opportunities for students.
As part of this initiative, SMU students have the opportunity to participate in the following global experiences:
With more than 200 partner universities across close to 50 countries, students have the opportunity to spend a term overseas and experience university life around the world.
Students can choose from world-renowned institutions such as Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania, University College London, Carnegie Mellon University, and Peking University, amongst others, or less conventional destinations like Morocco, Mexico and Eastern Europe.
The Global Summer Programme is a 4-week intensive programme which focuses on Business, Innovation, and Society in Asia.
This programme provides non-SMU students a wonderful opportunity to experience SMU’s interactive pedagogy, and expand their global network in the process.
Courses designed specifically to give students real, current insights into industries related to their field of study, through a 13-week seminar style pedagogy, meetings and visits with companies outside of Singapore.
Some of the study mission destinations include Oceania, Asia, US, Europe and the Middle East.
In today’s competitive job market, having global work experience under your belt is one monumental contribution for your prospective career. Going on an overseas internship entails widening your perspective, developing your network and embracing other cultures on a deeper level with an open mind and attitude, beyond just work experience.