Do university rankings and accreditation really matter? Manufacturing 'legitimacy' in Singapore's higher education sector

In this paper we examine the curious case of Singapore where the State is driving a national effort to improve productivity. We argue that the productivity drive is largely a political response to concerns that surfaced at the 2011 General Election. Drawing on data from a large scale survey of 215 leaders and managers of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector, we find only partial engagement with the Government’s productivity agenda and significant deficits across key determinants of total factor productivity. This we contend suggests a need for re-thinking the current suite of policy initiatives and implementing labour market reforms that would encourage reduced dependence on low wage migrant labour and sustainable investment in productivity improvement.