The programme was an immediate success. Out of the 33 students from its pioneering cohort who applied to Oxford and Cambridge, 32 received places. Since this spectacular first year, more than 300 students have won places at Britain’s top two universities.
Lionel is modest about his achievements at Hwa Chong and how he helped launch the careers of some of Singapore’s most powerful and influential residents. “You find success breeds success. Once we put Hwa Chong on the map with Oxford and Cambridge and our students saw what was possible then things just took care of themselves.”
By 1986, of the six teachers who were recruited from England to set up the programme, Lionel was the only one left. Many would have been happy with his initial success but Lionel wanted to build on his track record and establish Hwa Chong as a major player in developing Oxbridge-educated future leaders.
As a result Hwa Chong is one of only two foreign schools in the list of top 20 institutions sending students to the University of Cambridge, while some Oxford colleges have taken students from Hwa Chong every year for the past 30 years.
Things are getting tougher though, as Oxbridge faces pressure to give more places to British students while established Singapore schools like Hwa Chong and Raffles College compete with the rising powers of India and China.
Demand for places from Singaporean students is also increasing as personal wealth grows and parents realise they can now afford to send their offspring to an elite foreign university.
But this increased demand is not just for top British universities. “We are seeing a lot more students head to America to Ivy League colleges which now compete with Oxbridge so the landscape has changed a bit.”
While success was important to win over critics in the early years, it has not all been plain sailing. Most of Lionel’s problems stemmed from the lack of freedom students were given, in a society known for its strong government control. To counteract this, Mr Barnard treated students like undergraduates, giving them more freedom than they were used to.
“If you give them a liberal education and let them think for themselves then they become more academically mature and more confident. It’s no surprise that you get out of that different types of students who can become President’s Scholars.”
Lionel himself studied philosophy, politics and economics at Bristol University and obtained a master’s in education from Lancaster University. He says being English helped when it came to dealing with admissions boards at Oxford and Cambridge.
The jovial Mr Barnard is married to a French ballet teacher and has three grown-up children. He is planning his retirement in rural France, leaving behind the skyscrapers of Singapore for an 18th-century farmhouse.
He knew it was time to call it a day when he discovered he was teaching the daughter of a former student – Singapore’s second permanent secretary for Trade and Industry. “I've been here long enough to teach both mother and daughter – that made me think I’d better retire,” he joked.
Lionel will leave behind a strong legacy for his successor and a track record hard to beat. One unintentional tribute came from the head of a “leading girls’ school” in the UK who contacted Lionel thousands of miles away for advice on how to get her most gifted students into Oxbridge.
While his former students heap praise on him, does feel he has achieved his original objective to rebalance the strong intake of maths and engineering graduates entering government and the public sector?
“Asia has a long history of producing many brilliant students who excel in maths and science as there has been so much emphasis on these subjects. Therefore it was always going to be an uphill struggle getting them to study history and other art-based subjects.
“But with so many maths and science students for the Public Service Commission to choose from, we helped students realise that studying other subjects would give them the language and communication skills that were lacking among other candidates.”
PPE is now the most popular subject studied by Hwa Chong students heading to Oxbridge followed by law, history, English, geography and politics. The 12 Hwa Chong students currently in Oxford are all studying PPE.
Was it hard leaving the UK to become an expat ?
“I was working as a teacher in 1979 and was offered a salary three times what I was currently earning. Margaret Thatcher had just come into power and I decided it was a good time to leave the country. I initially took the job for three years as the plan was for students returning from the UK would take over from me. But, obviously that never happened...” It's as well for Hwa Chong that it didn't.
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