Producer: Thum Ping Tjin

Last year, Professor Stefano Harney made headlines in Singapore when he gave all 169 business students in his course the same grade. The university called these grades bogus, but Stefano felt the students deserved it and gave them all an A grade.

This week on Political Agenda, PJ Thum speaks to Professor Stefano Harney about this incident and what it reveals about meritocracy in Singapore.

Thum Ping Tjin (“PJ”) is Managing Director of New Naratif and a historian at the University of Oxford. A Rhodes Scholar, Commonwealth Scholar, Olympic athlete, and the only Singaporean to swim the English Channel, his work centres on Southeast Asian governance and politics. His most recent work is Living with Myths in Singapore (Ethos: 2017, co-edited with Loh Kah Seng and Jack Chia). Reach him at pingtjin.thum@newnaratif.com.