This report provides an overview of Singapore's strategy for human resource development and the country's concerted effort to successfully orchestrate the many separate initiatives between 1960s to 1980s into an effective market-driven, three-tiered higher education system emphasizing technology and modernization. The study highlights the pre-eminent role of the government in the planning, funding, and implementation of strategies to achieve an effective, high quality, and sustainable higher education system. The study then outlines the structure of the system (two universities, four polytechnics, and ongoing job training), its diversified institutional development, the growth in student numbers (a seven-fold increase in 30 years), and the reasons for the large numbers of students studying abroad (between 2,000 and 3,000 annually). The report describes the central features of Singapore's higher education: relevance and quality; emphasis on research and postgraduate studies; the service role of the system; the relationship of the state to the system; and the financing of the system. Finally, the study discusses emerging issues in the future direction of Singapore's higher education system and the lessons other developing countries can learn. The appendix presents a brief history of higher education in Pre-Independence Singapore. (Contains 81 references.) (Author/GLR)