The Dato' SHANmughalingam Page

Dato' Dr M SHANmughalingam was hyperactive in the debating, literary and drama fields and played football and table tennis in the V.I. First in Malaysia in the national pre University Sixth Form Entrance Exam with a 96% score, he was the secretary and later joint editor of the Seladang, steering the V.I. newspaper through one of its most vibrant periods. He was in the first group of Victorians in 1958 to be awarded the coveted "Club 21" badge for meritorious service to the school. He was the lead speaker of the very successful school debating team as well as the leader of the school quiz team from 1955 while in Form IV and chairman of the Senior Literary and Debating Society.

Shan holds an Honours degree from the University of Malaya, a Masters from Harvard and a Doctorate from Oxford University. At Harvard he graduated First in class with Grade A in all eight subjects with "the best grade average for several years past" (Prof. John Montgomery). He was admitted to the Ph.D. programme directly without formal application. At Oxford he won the Gertrude Hartley Memorial prize for Poetry, a graduate scholarship from Balliol College and the second prize in the Short Story competition judged by famous novelist, Iris Murdoch and John Bayley, Prof. of Literature, sponsored by ISIS, Oxford University and The Observer. He was sole representative of the Third World in meetings with the President of Harvard University. On invitation by Harvard University he helped in the design of a new Executive Programme for Leaders in Development: Managing Economic and Political Reform developed jointly by Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Institute for International Development, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass, USA.