Got this article from http://singaporemind.blogspot.com/
Anybody knows whether the info in bold is true?
Explaining a discrepancy.....
Mr Gan said 28,000 Singapore students applied to
the universities this year and half of them were offered places. In
contrast, 23,000 foreign students applied and only 987 or 4.3
percent were given places -
Channel News Asia, 18 Jul 2007
international students now make up about 20% of NTUs
undergraduate population and about 33% of its graduate
population
the National University of Singapore (NUS) said about
20% of its 23,900 undergraduates and about 50% of its 9,100
postgraduate students are from overseas
the number of permanent
residencies (PRs) awarded last year rose to 57,300 a 9.6%
increase from 2005 and a 55.3% increase from 2004- Business Times
of 26 May 2007.
The people I spoke to who graduated from NUS & NTU, stared at
me in disbelief when I mentioned these numbers - only 4.3% of the
foreigners who applied got into our universities. They were sure
there are lot more foreign students than the 987 our esteemed
minister said were successful with their applications.
Of course our Minister of State for Eduction Mr. Gan did not lie
when he say only 4.3% of foreign students who applied to our
universities got a place. One plausible explanation is the rest got
into our unversities because they were offered scholarship and
hence did not need to apply for a place in our universities.
As Singapore aspires to be an education hub, we cannot expect top
foreign students to apply to our universities like locals - they
have to be invite to our universities through offers of
scholarship.
I met a lecturer from one of our universities the other day.
He said many foreign students take advantage of a loophole
in their scholarship requiring them to work 3 years in Singapore
before leaving for other countries. They simply claim that they are
unable to find jobs for 6 months and they are allowed to leave -
thus getting a free education at the expense of
Singaporeans!! Wah so smart...no wonder our beloved govt
like them so much to give them free scholarship while Singaporeans
like myself struggled through my university giving tuition on
weekends and make ends meet by taking up bank loans for my fees. I
took 5 years to clear my education debt after I got my 1st class
honours from NUS. I guess my govt was afraid that I wasn't
challenged enough.....to this day I'm still thankful for the
challenges they gave me. I guess they are kind enough to reserve
such challenges for Singaporeans while foreign students are given
scholarships and denied the benefit of shouldering the financial
burdens that Singaporeans received.
