September 23, 2009 by admin
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By Amanda Lian, Social Correspondent
We are sure you are all very concerned about the issue of the
influx of International Students at our local universities and
whether it has affected the local students adversely. And so, this
article is going to look into anecdotal perspectives of whether
foreign (International) students are really depriving locals of
places in the few Universities in Singapore, and to what
extent.
With some evidence, though which may not be enough, this is my
take on the issue and hopefully, we would be able to gain further
knowledge on this widely debated issue.
We will look into two main points in the hope of coming to a
conclusive answer:
1. Statistics have been available to the Singapore public that
there has been an increased intake of foreign students. So has this
in relation affected the local students who are eligible and made
it harder to get enrolled?
2. Since only 5% of Polytechnic graduates are eligible for
University admission, should we as a nation, reconsider that number
and ultimately, decide again on the intake of foreign students in
the local Universities?
Although on this topic and these points will come up in our
minds from time to time, we must also clarify that the answers to
them are also able to stand on their own.
However, although we might say that it is harder for local
students to enter Universities but we are also open to other
factors that might affect this conclusion. So before we move into
the actual main points, we are going to cover some of these
factors.
Any caveats? A word of warning first though, this is not an
official study but a compilation of all the information that we
have our hands on. Therefore, our answers are still highly
debatable and tentative to most citizens out there.
Why are more and more foreigners coming to Singapore to study?
Are there some advantages that they see by flying all the way
here?
To be truthful, yes there are, including achieving citizenship
status more efficiently. On the other hand, would the government be
viewing this as devaluing the status of our local citizens?
There are definitely stereotype values that foreigners from the
West are more valuable than our comrades from the East for some
reasons.
Would this make Singapore a lost haven? One which we had worked
so hard to attain – a haven for people of higher intellect? And
because of that, maybe we can also consider why all our high flyers
or brain children are going overseas for tertiary education
instead.
As said in the second main point above, only 5 percent of
Polytechnic graduates are eligible for admission into universities
and these graduates have to get a minimum grade point average of
3.5.
Yet, how many of these eligible graduates actually have priority
to fit into that 5 percent and how many of these are
foreigners?
Out of all the polytechnic students in a certain intake, 10
percent of them are foreigners. Besides that, shouldn’t
scholarships be given out to Singaporean students only, just like
most of the other countries?
Yes, we are definitely in the know about the new University that
is coming up and building that is still using the taxpayers’ money
right?
Although it is targeted at the local polytechnic graduates, it
is still new and has to build a name and reputation for itself from
scratch!
Another factor to note is that admissions to the local
universities are perceptibly different for polytechnic students
because they are admitted and enrolled based on paper
qualifications or more colloquially, scores rather than skills
while they are being trained in that area while in their
course.
I fully agree that they are generally enrolled into second year
University modules because of their advanced standings but how many
graduates actually make it through the admission’s interview in the
first place?
Now after listing down so many factors, let us go into the main
point of whether our local students are being deprived of places in
our handful of Universities by foreigners.
The answer to it is actually quite easy: “Apparently not”.
As said by the former Senior Minister of State (Education) Aline
Wong in 2000:
“All local students who qualify will have a place in Singapore’s
educational institutions and Singaporeans get priority in primary
and secondary schools and junior colleges”.
From what I gather here, foreign students do not interfere with
the competitive education environment with us, other than the JC
and Polytechnic divide.
On the other hand, as far as us, the citizens know, it is the
policies that the Education Ministry has set a benchmark on and the
university admissions department has to strictly adhere to the
intake numbers of local students and foreign students and the both
of them are not correlated.
[To be continued in Part 2 tomorrow]
About the Author:
Amanda Lian graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English
Language, Creative writing and Child Psychology from the University
of Western Australia. She worked as a staff writer for Hardwarezone
and is currently an editorial executive at Cre8 Singapore Pte
Ltd.
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September 24, 2009 by admin
Filed under Opinion
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By Amanda Lian, Social Correspondent
As said by the former Senior Minister of State (Education) Aline
Wong in 2000:
“All local students who qualify will have a place in Singapore’s
educational institutions and Singaporeans get priority in primary
and secondary schools and junior colleges”.
From what I gather here, foreign students do not interfere with
the competitive education environment with us, other than the JC
and Polytechnic divide.
On the other hand, as far as us, the citizens know, it is the
policies that the Education Ministry has set a benchmark on and the
university admissions department has to strictly adhere to the
intake numbers of local students and foreign students and the both
of them are not correlated.
As stated by the then Director (Higher Education) with the
Ministry of Education, Mr. Lim Chee Hwee in 2005:
“An estimate of approximately 21 percent of primary one cohort
gets admitted to our local Universities every year. From this pool,
about 2 percent comes from the polytechnics while the remaining
comes from the Junior Colleges. Looking into the future, in 2010,
25 percent of primary one cohort will gain admission and by then,
the polytechnic graduates who will enter the local Universities
would be increased to 6 percent.”
From the above, we can see that it will be more competitive for
JC graduates to enter Universities and good news for polytechnic
graduates while the percentage of foreign students remains the
same.
Following the above information, let us now look and organize
some data on our hands from the Education Statistics Digest Online.
Below, we have the total number of graduates entering Universities
from previous years in our local context.
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Of these numbers, how many of them are from our local
Polytechnics and how many are from other countries, or more
colloquially, foreigners? From the Junior College list above, you
can easily work out how many of the students are eligible to make
it into our local Universities.
Following which, you should subtract that number from the local
university intake and you will get the number of foreign students
and those from the Polytechnic pool. From the Polytechnic list, you
should work out the 5 percent that is eligible and then you will
get the total number of foreign students every year.
From here, I must also point out that this number might not be
accurate as every year, more and more locals are draining out of
the country to pursue their education overseas.
Before 1998, Teo Chee Hean stated “the inflow of foreign
students stagnated at around 10 percent of the undergraduate
intake”.
However, in 1998, the influx of international students swarmed
to 16.5 percent and by 2000, the capped 20 percent is reached every
year.
Putting all the information together and analyzing it together with
our own beliefs and accounts, we, the locals are not deprived of
places in Universities. Rather, it has become more competitive and
we have the reassurance that the total influx is capped at 20
percent every year till the next big thing comes about.
In fact, to some locals, it might have been made easier to enter
the local Universities. However, for a more detailed and conclusive
result, further research has to be done and this might not be how
it seems to most Singaporeans.
About the Author:
Amanda Lian graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English
Language, Creative writing and Child Psychology from the University
of Western Australia. She worked as a staff writer for Hardwarezone
and is currently an editorial executive at Cre8 Singapore Pte
Ltd.