The Straits Time Education Forum, organised in partnership with SMU, saw experts debating the motion “You don’t need a degree to succeed in life”. SMU President Professor Arnoud De Meyer and the Dean of SMU’s School of Law Associate Professor Goh Yihan stood against the motion, while Mr Andres Schleicher, director for education and skills at OECD, and SkillsFuture Singapore chief executive Ng Cher Pong argued for the motion. The audience at the SMU School of Law building voted 65.4 per cent in favour of the motion and 34.7 per cent against it at the start. However, the end of the session saw an even split in opinions.

Professor De Meyer pointed out that the group of people who are successful without a degree was extremely small, or infinitesimal, as he put it. He added that every member of the debate panel held a degree and questioned if they would be there if they did not. Associate Prof Goh said the late Apple chief Steve Jobs, although a university dropout, had benefited from his time in university. "If he had not attended that calligraphy course in university in his broad-based educational experience, we would not have proportionally spaced phones, or multiple typefaces on our Macs," he argued.

The team arguing against the motion said that in the course of pursuing a degree, one would pick up soft social skills, and not just hard skills. Associate Prof Goh said a degree is "but an indication of the entire university experience". It is not just a paper qualification but caps years of learning soft skills such as building one's confidence, finding one's passion and honing one's leadership abilities. Prof De Meyer, sharing his experience of working in different countries in various roles, said the pursuit of a degree helped him in adapting to new challenges