local vs top overseas schools' degrees

outsiderAnecdote SG

THOSE applying for university scholarships from companies such as SingTel, the Keppel Group, Sembcorp Industries and Alexandra Hospital can perish the thought of jetting overseas.

These four are among top companies that hand out scholarships tenable only in local universities as they believe them to be as good as the Oxbridge, Ivy League or other brand-name institutions overseas.

Sembcorp, for example, said that the universities here were 'just as good', but because it had strong international operations, it encourages its scholars to get overseas exposure throughexchange programmes and sets up work-study stints at its overseas offices.

Major accountancy firm KPMG Singapore, for instance, has offered only local scholarships for over 20 years and has filled its top ranks with local graduates.

Mr Philip Lee, who heads the firm's people, performance and culture, said: 'Securing a place in a local university has always been competitive, and only the best academic performers succeed in getting placements in their choice of discipline. This is especially true of our business and accountancy schools.'

But the majority of companies still dangle offers of overseas scholarships in front of the brightest students. And there is no denying the country's top brains are choosing foreign over local universities, as former minister and Temasek Holdings chairman S. Dhanabalan noted recently.

Read the full story in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.

Stevenson101 SG

Personally i think there's an upper limit to how good a university can make a student, in other words the actual competence level of the top graduates between our local universities and top overseas universities may not actually be that much of a difference in any measurable way.

I think there is a point in the rankings where an university is just better because of how connected it is, with more influential alumni/faculty and corresponding bigger budgets. When i mean better, i mean better job choices to the graduates.

Of course, i'm not a graduate myself so my opinions would be skewed but looking at our educational system where the top PSLE students are automatically funnelled to the top secondary schools it makes me wonder if the schools are actually better because they really give a better learning experiences, or simply by the self reinforcing opinion that students with the best results would perform better there.