This article examines how the Singaporean state has reformed the higher education sector in order to co-opt different political
and economic agendas at both the global and local levels, utilising quality assurance as a regulatory process of control. The core
argument is that quality assurance has been used as an instrument to reshape the higher education landscape in Singapore. The
article begins with a review of the literature on the role of the Singaporean state in higher education. Next, it reviews how the Global
Schoolhouse initiative was developed and implemented and how public and private higher education sectors were audited. The
article then analyses the establishment of a new quality assurance mechanism for private higher education in 2009. Finally, the
article suggests that this new regulatory regime exemplifies the importance of political factors in the implementation of neoliberal
managerialism in higher education.