KWOK KIAN WOON (University of the Arts) was the guest speaker at the Class of 2025 Convocation ceremony of Nanyang Technological University’s School of Humanities on 28 July 2025. This is the text of his speech.
I am privileged to join you on this very special day for our graduands, and certainly also for your loved ones, including some who cannot be here with us today. Indeed, it is a great privilege for many among us of various generations to have had the opportunity to study at a university, and many, still today, being the first generation in our families to do so.
It’s not uncommon for some of our elders to lament that they did not continue their formal education – that’s why they have pinned their hopes on us. And sometimes, they would add: “But I was schooled in the University of Life”. They learnt hard-won lessons from life and work experience, and one wonders if their special wisdom could today be imparted in classrooms and through textbooks.
Perhaps we are often led to think that we deserve the privilege of university education because our individual talent and diligence. But the truth is that we owe so much to those who have made it possible for us to enjoy this privilege, especially our loved ones, teachers and mentors who have encouraged us through the years, our fellow citizens who have contributed to public support, and let us not forget the service of employees and workers, enabling the university to carry out its mission each and every day.
Dear graduands of the Class of 2025, our privilege should never be taken for granted. We do not live and flourish — and the university does not fulfil its mission — in a social vacuum. I think you would expect me to next say that “with privilege comes responsibility” or “with great privilege comes great responsibility”. But this may come across as clichéd and moralistic, and I am confident that this is something you already know and have often thought about.
I would like to note that the word “responsibility” and associated ideas about “duty”, “obligation”, and “accountability” can sound rather abstract and connote demands on us as individuals, which we find imposing and unrealistic. Perhaps it is more concrete to further note that the word “responsibility” has its roots in the Latin verb respondere, that is, to respond, as in, for example, replying to a question. So let me not preach the need for responsibility but instead share a few reflections on what it may mean for all of us, especially the university-educated, to respond — and be responsive — to the times we live in.
Graduands, you may have heard of the phrase “May you live in interesting times!” — which is said to be something of a curse. You are graduating as the world enters the second quarter of the 21st century. Yes, we are living in interesting — challenging but also troubling – times, full of new opportunities and yet full of new risks. This year, Singapore celebrates its 60th year of Independence. But note also that 2025 is the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the end of the Japanese Occupation in Singapore, but also the dropping of the Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and that 2025 is the 50th year commemoration of the end of the Vietnam War, but it also marks the 50th year of the start of the Cambodian genocide.
Now, in speaking with the Class of 2025, and most of you were born in the early years of this century, some of your professors and I might be said to be “so 20th century”, as if we come from another planet. Yes, there has been tremendous progress achieved since the last World War, especially with decolonisation, periods of relative peace and stable economic growth, technological advancement, and wider access to education, healthcare, and social services. But you entered university as a devastating global pandemic was still being contained, having exposed and exacerbated social inequalities, which remain salient today. During your studies, the world has also witnessed the catastrophic effects of climate change, intractable geopolitical conflicts, prolonged regional wars, man-made humanitarian disasters, and deepening polarisation between peoples and within nation-states.
During your studies over the last few years, the world has rushed headlong — and irreversibly — into the era of Generative Artificial Intelligence, which has engendered radically new ways of learning, working, and creating, and yet also raised new questions about safety and ethics. And your generation, which grew up using digital devices from young, is poised to ride this new wave, benefitting from its unprecedented creative force but also having to grapple with its equally unprecedented profound effects on human life and the environment.
How do we respond to these multiple, interconnected crises and challenges of our times? Indeed, the speed, scope, and scale of transformation appear to be intimidating and overwhelming to any idealistic person dedicated to social betterment. Some of you may recall the often-quoted line by Karl Marx: “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” Indeed, the world is crying out for change, and inaction has its costs and consequences, including the feeling on our part that we are complicit in perpetuating the status quo.
Perhaps, though, the speed, scope, and scale of transformation in the world today should make us wonder if the urgent need to change the world must be accompanied by an abiding responsiveness to the crises and challenges of the times — by us interpreting, in each instance asking: where do we stand today, why and how did we get to be where we are, and where are we going? These are questions tied to what it means to be human and what it means to live a good life and in a good society — and they guide us in addressing practical questions about what is to be done as we confront the issues of the day. And these are questions that a university education in the humanities, the arts, and social sciences has prepared us to ask. Indeed, the hallmark of our disciplines lies in honest debate, rigorous discussion, and careful deliberation. And we must be prepared to ask and address these questions with our peers across all other disciplines, as we navigate the future together.
In the face of the accelerated speed of transformation, we are tempted to search for information by scanning, scrolling, and swiping on our devices and arrive at near instantaneous answers provided by AI applications. As useful as these are, let us make time and effort to do what we have rehearsed countless of times in our education, that is, by thinking through the difficult issues at hand, formulating new questions, exercising our capabilities for reading and analysing all kinds of materials — texts, data, arguments, images — slowly, closely, and deeply.
In the face of the complex and multifaceted scope of transformation, let us remain intellectually curious, realising that we don’t know what we don’t know and need to know, by learning from — and being able to converse with — others in fields very different from our own. And in confronting uncertainties, contradictions and ambiguities, let us be prepared to consider diverse sources of evidence and conflicting viewpoints.
In the face of the unparalleled scale of transformation, with implications and consequences at every level, personal, institutional, national, global, and planetary, let us not be paralysed, feeling powerless as mere individuals. But we are not alone, and we cannot change the world solely on our own. Just as our personal intellectual journeys have been supported by an entire learning community of peers, mentors, and past exemplars, and by all the people who make the work of a university possible, so too must we draw strength and encouragement from each other and reach out to others as we build a collective sense of agency.
Graduands, as you enter the world of work and the larger society — the University of Life — the lessons you have learnt so far will be put to the test, and with many more lessons still to be learnt. I wish you strength and courage, and a sense of joy and purpose, in developing a most meaningful vocation in the decades ahead. Congratulations, Class of 2025!
— Kwok Kian Woon is Vice-Chancellor, University of the Arts Singapore, and Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Nanyang Technological University.