I am of the view that scholarships should not be terminated at the final lap of the course as students are already under enormous pressure to perform well.

Is NTU too concern about achieving desired grades when they terminated David’s scholarship?

And why not? He had already been informed that his performance was below par since 2007.

He didn’t even have to repay what he’d already gotten, so exactly what was he sore about, to the extent that he’d to go around stabbing his FYP prof?

An ASEAN scholar is dead for no good reasons .

To attract the best to Singapore and using policy of offering scholarships may need to be examined.
Offering scholarships come with responsibilities both ways – the student to perform and the University to ensure minmum standards are attained and somewhere in between, there lie the failure of both culminating in the tragedy
The University’s factual statement sounded defensive and implied draconian techniques such as a series of warnings without counselling or mitigation measures, and not having the feelings & compassion in dealing with a human being.in his final year when the university’s admin staff and teachers know well the pressures.

If NTU is serious about learning from this tragedy, it should hold an independent commission of inquiry. Issuing such a one defensive statement raised more questions than it answers. This decision to terminate his scholarship on declining academic performance is a disastrous one. It has led to the lost of a promising young life, another seriously injured, hundreds of others in trauma and bad reputation for NTU. Why the rigidity in sticking to an arbitrary standard. If he is good enough to be on scholarship for over 3 years, why terminate him when he is only months away from graduating ?
Did NTU consider the psychological impact the temination will have on him?
Did NTU make an effort to counsel him before and after making the decision?

THE LATEST UPDATE OF THE STORY IS THAT THE FAMILY AND RELATIVES FOUND MANY THINGS TO BE SUSPICIOUS. THE WRIST WHICH WAS SAID TO BE CUT BY DAVID IN AN ATTEMPT TO COMMIT SUICIDE TURNED OUT TO BE JUST FINE, NO SCAR WHATEVER, AND THERE WERE LOTS OF PLASTER/BAND AID MARK ON HIS NECK WHICH THE PARENTS FOUND STRANGE. AND MANY MORE. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE INDONESIAN OR UNDERSTAND MALAY, GO TO http://www.detik.com

My personal view of the scholarship issue… it is not even an issue to David or his family. Some S$3000 will not make him go mad. He was from prestigious private high school which didnt offer scholarship. So it is unlikely that the issue is about the scholarship.

Very well said and relevant, clearly an intelligent human was on his way to complete his journey in his study and at the very last moment he faced his greatest challenge, he had difficulty. It must have been plain to his supervisor, lecturer(s) and other staff involved with his studies.

From the informations from the comments, the Student had done well for three years but unfortunately he lapsed at the last lap and his scholarship was rescinded. Was it not possible to extend the scholarship a little for him for his final year, even if he had to repeat his FYP ?

I find it strange that an Asean scholar who took part in International Olympiad to not be able to get 3.5/5 for CGPA. My opinion is that it should be a breeze for him. 3.5 is only equivalent to a second lower honours. I would have thought the requirement might have been set somewhat higher at 4.5 at least. There is likely some more skeletons in the closet in this tragic incident.

Double standards for foreigners and Singaporeans. I would say that many Singaporeans who can score between 4 and 4.5 for CGPA won’t get a scholarship anywhere.

My condolences to the Widjaja family.

If the report is true, then it is not right to say that NTU withdrew his scholarship at the last minute.

He got his first warning letter in 2007!

It is just pure speculation that the scholarship is the issue here. What is important is not the three letters sent to him and or his family. What is important is whether any discussions, interview or counselling has been extended to a student who is about to lose his scholarship. Even if it is not the protocol to counsel the student before he loses his scholarship, it is imperative that a face to face session be conducted when a student loses a scholarship as it is a major event in a student’s school life. At least a head of department should be involved. If this has been done, then more light can be shed at what transpired in such a session to put the correct perspective on this aspect in relation to the incident. In any case, I think what transpired in the room on that fateful day is of more important consideration then this issue of scholarship termination.

It is an unnecessary loss of a promising young life and NTU, in terminating his scholarship, short of a few months of graduation should realise the psychological impact on the student. Have they taken into consideration the past three years of his studies? More help should have been given to this student.
Was he having a language problem in expressing his thoughts on paper? There are so many questions involved here.

Where is the heart?

My heart goes out to his parents and loved ones who have to bear the pain of his tragic death – it is very traumatic for them.

Being able to pay the fees is a non-issue here.

It is the loss of self-esteem and the shame the student might have felt if it was known that his scholarship was terminated.

if it is the scholarship it is obvious NTU has followed procedure
three letters ,parents informed and advising him to seek help…..
watt more can be done?

I m a scholar in NTU and i must defend the way they terminated the scholarship…..3 letters!!! That means 3 semesters of poor grades which means since his the 2nd half of his 2nd year, he have not been getting 3.5. 3.5 is the basic aim of every NTU student, not to mention a scholar. To tink they gave him grace of 3 semesters to pull up his grades, his sort of calibre should not have much difficulty in doing so. So, u realliy cannot blame NTU for terminating his scholarship….the scholarship came with responsibility, which is to do basically well (3.5 gpa isn’t hard to meet for most), but unfortunately he did not. Then again, to stab someone and kill himself for 3300 dollars, I dun tink he did it for that….he should be smart and logical enough to know his parents can pay his school fees…..perhaps, his parents stressed him too much? Just speculating….

i’ve got sg friends who were awarded scholarships from the govt. they did not do well in their studies and the scholarships were not only terminated, but they have to pay back what they’ve spent. i think they are the ones who might go mad bearing the huge debt.

so, don’t think the administration of the ASEAN scholarship should shoulder the blame on this isolated case.

Latest news in Jakarta, David’s father confirmed they had received the warning letter and felt no problem to the possibility of the scholarship’s termination because the amount they would have to pay , which was 1 more semester, was not much. He said this issue about falling grades and all was raised to make it sound as if the case was David’s fault. He still believed his kid was innocent asked for further investigation.

You know, as a parent myself, I think they deserve to know the truth. So Professor, have a heart and speak up. Tell the truth regardless of the consequences, so you can have your peace of mind too.

It is getting unhealthy for student of such young age to believe that education is everything above precious life.

If you don’t do a job well, you get the boot. With much respect to David and his family, i think we have to be less emotional on this case. I don’t think NTU or the ASEAN scholarship board should shoulder any blame on this. The scholarship is to encourage students to work hard and perform. But with warning letters dated as far back as 2007, I think we should be fair to NTU and ASEAn for there are other students also waiting for the scholarship and also, wanting to do well in their studies.

Emotions run high in this episode. It is with a heavy heart for myself to read about this incident happening in NTU.But be reminded that most of us here are just making unfounded accusations with no basis. To be frank, the professor himself is also a victim.

The scholarship system is to reward and encourage students from the ASEAN region to reach the highest standards of education. But this system should not be punished, because of an incident such as this. We have to be fair to it, so that future generations of ASEAN can benefit from it. You have to agree with me that this scholarship, spearheaded by the Singapore government, does benefit our ASEAN friends.

As for my fellow Singaporeans, please also be reminded that there are many more scholarships available for us too. From my conversations with my fellow peers, I believe it is always been a small minority that feels insecure with the foreigners around. This is also of course not exclusive to Singapore, but everywhere around the world.

Lets be mindful.

Helllooo, People!!!! What has all this speculation about foreigners and Singaporeans got to do with David’s tragic death?!!!! Xenophobics go home.

I completely agree with Harry’s comment that NTU should be more transparent and hold an enquiry. All this defensive posturing about 3 warning letters, etc. must be very hurtful for his friends and family to read about. Please, let’s just focus on preventing more such cases.

In this case, I think NTU is using scholarship to force the student to study well, instead of personally approaching his problem.

I fully agree with #3, #4 & #18. The university should have been more pro-active to help the student with his problems This very sad and unfortunate incident perhaps reflect a more deep-seated problem with our universitys’ administration & management. Just take a stroll in any faculty’s office & u will see what I mean – the individual professors’ office along the aisle look like prison cells and many doors(and the sorry efforts at ‘personalizing’ them) are in-fact perpetually closed in self-imprisonment.
I get a feeling that both NTU & NUS are not well-run compared with other public and private sector organisations/institutions in Singapore: faculties & departments tend to be quite inward-looking, almost fiefdom-like with individual and/or groups of faculty staff & members behaving like warlords with no real particular interest in students, accentuated perhaps by the pressures exerted on faculty to win research accolades & getting published in top-tiered publications. Pending further investigation, I think the university has to be accountable to David Widjaja’s parents for his most unfortunate death. And a deep, hard look at our unversity’s priorities, management & administrative practices is in order.

What actually happened in the office of the AP and David, nobody will know as the AP has refused to comment.

The AP did not deserved to be stabbed and David had gone there armed with a knife.

writer-ology (#21),

How do you not know if the AP had attacked David, then disposed his body, follow by cutting himself at non-life-threatening parts of his own body to feign innocence?

[...] See the rest here:  NTU statement on Widjaja’s scholarship : The Online Citizen – a … [...]

smallvice585: that’s a very baseless accusations because there are witnesses that saw deceased sitting on the platform. don’t let emotions run high.

Actually, eventhough David is said to be using the knife, does the knife really belong to David or is it actually from the office? Thank God we believe in Singapore’s police investigation, whatever the result later, coz if this happens in Indonesia, the truth will never come out . Whoever pays the police (the most) will have the truth.

To Yan: Seems like you know quite a bit about Indonesia, eh… Yeah, you are right, in Indonesia, people with more money would win the court 90% of the time…

A scholarship termination would be a nightmare for any scholar… The cold fact would eat the “scholar” inside out… But, I do not really think NTU should really be blamed for issuing such “termination”… It is the rule, anyway, he will get that letter sooner or later… (maybe, preferably later…)

As I have said before, no matter how cool or prepared the scholar was… he would be at least “surprised” to have his scholarship terminated… The universities involved should at least give some talking sessions with him to ensure that the scholar knows that it is not the end for him/her, yet, like suggesting alternative scholarship, etc… I would look forward to the time when this system could be put to work… for the better future of those students and the universities, too.

i think singapore police will try to cover this things up..
david relative can’t see david dead body.. and must wait for a day.. until they can see it.. why must they wait for a day?? does the police try to cover something??
=.=” too makes other student dont scared studying in singapore
Things like this should not happen..
we should blame who? i think the university..
i believe money is not the problem..
Someone/something must have push david into his limit..
when he reach his limit.. he can’t think logicaly..

Reply to #12.

This tragedy clearly shows that current procedure and protocol in handling such matters are inadequate. Certainly much more can be done and must be done to prevent a repeat of such tragedy. This kind of shortcomings are all over in the Singapore system. The leadership are more interested in covering their own arses and looking after their own interests than caring for the people.

Question for #13.

Is there any evidence that sticking rigidly to the 3.5 has led to scholars contributing more to society ? This issue of the effectiveness of sticking
rigidly to this criteria has been well discuss and documented by others.
Sufficient to say that there are enough doubts being raised to continue
using it.

To concerned student: maybe because I am Indonesian…? :)

Reply to #14.

I am not too sure that other countries are as strick as Singapore on this issue. We may have been too harsh.
By being so rigid on scholars performace, are there any evidence that our scholars are better than those of other countries ?

@ Yan: i think concerned student is indonesian too

if you want to have another case of NTU doing damage control, just google “abrar yusra”, “gold medal” and “engineering eee”. check the admission year and graduation year, and please point out the irregularities

This is an insight from a post graduate student. The main concern is not the scholarship. Why don’t we think from the aspect of Final Year Project (FYP), since the one got hurt is his FYP’s supervisor?! Personality and charism of a lecturer will not be revealed during his mass lectures or tutorial. However, it is always presented to his graduate student in research, or undergraduate student in FYP. Do u know how much is the weight that a FYP carries? if a student can’t maintain average grade in FYP, not to say his results can be improved, actually his results can be pulled down very much.

Pls more and more graduate students, pls speak out. One more concern is also, most singaporean students are not willing to take up graduate studies. Or those who have taken graduate studies have better opportunity to secure a better scholarship, and thus under guidance of better professor. On the other hand, international students is taking the graduate studies as a platform to enter singapore for career and life. They might be able to take all the pressure by thinking of the future in singapore.

Reply to Harry on #29

If not results, then what is your yardstick? Like What winston churchill said: “democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”. Democracy have been made a mockery in ZImbabwe and maybe Russia etc etc. Their governments abuses democracy. So are u saying that democracy is not effective (Most western countries and USA of cos are democracies) ? What about communism then? Is it more effective? Monachry? Despotism?

It might be the worst u could say of just looking at a grade alone, but what about the rest of the methods u might want to offer someone a scholarship? Are there any other methods to look at how u offer a scholarship? Maintaining a 3.5 is not just about intelligence btw, it also heavily depends on cold hard work to study and study….So, a boss hiring may look a grade in 2 ways, 1)”This guy is damm smart and damm proficient in his field of study.” or 2)”This guy is damm hardworking to achieve such a grade”. Either way, they are positive . U may say grades and results are not good ways to look at hiring someone but they are the best of all the WAYS u could tink of hiring someone. Its not about being rigid, since he is offered AND accepted the scholarship, he should know wat he is in for (Good grades, hard work etc etc). If not, there are hell of others out there will want it.

Dear Graduate Student

From my opinion, why S’porean students are unwilling to take up Post-Grad, is not they are unable to face the challenges of the Post-grad studies.

It is that they also have other concerns in life not just certs/ better-paying jobs/ research.

They have their families rooted here. An avg, male s’porean would be around 24 when he graduated from uni. Some slower ones, i.e. who went through longer education route to reached Uni, would be around 26-27. Some even older.

From the high cost of living in S’pore and the paltry sum of the PhD scholarship stipend, i.e. $1.8K to $2.5K / mth (w/o CPF) it can hardly cover the living expenses. Even how passionate he/she is into research, they still have to be realistic and decide what is the most viable. Moreover, they still have their NS reservist, yearly IPPT.

So logically speaking, a male s’porean would have more liabilities then a foreign student.

Also, a PhD offers depth of knowledge into a specific field. Those who never go for a PhD can choose to have a diversity of knowledge. i actually have spoken to some prof. and feel that their knowledge is not wide enough. they only have dept.

It is a combination of ppl from all walks that make this world possible. Not just PhDs.

Moreover, MM, PM and even some of the cabinet ministers, do not have PhDs. (dun talk abt honourary PhD).

Hope this clear your misunderstandings

Best Regards
Poor Undergrad

Latest news, there has been correction on the news by Singapore side. It is said now that David did not commit suicide. Haven’t got time to check further.

Just some thoughts screaming through my head…. which i dont really have the answers to but I’ll just voice them anyway (ignoring cover ups and all)

What is the use of a talent that harbours malicious intent? To resort to violence as a means of solving problems? Is that what we want in society? Are we more concerned about 1 life, or the possible lives lost? Can we recall the gunning shock in US’ Virginia Tech?

Yes, education is a vital platform for guiding students. But can 4 years of tertiary education, or the lack of proper guidance as some would argue, contribute to a person’s impulse to cause harm?

Or is the behaviour innate? Something that was characteristic of a person since young? Did the person have a history of bottling up emotions and having rare, yet unreasonably explosive outburst?

During his formative years, was a person taught to deal with stress? Did he come to realise the ramifications of any action he partook? Did he understand what violence meant?

Bottomline is, can we blame the university? Or is it the years of formal education when one is most impressionable, that is the one to be subjected to flaming? We can continue pointing fingers… but where does the blame game end?

In any case, my condolences to his family for the loss. Its a terrible heartache for any parent to see their children leave before they do.

To Dounai: If I may respond, I think the Singapore government is very clever when it comes to recruiting the so-called foreign talents, at least those from Indonesia. They target Olympiad contestants which had gone through tough process (I know because I had worked with some of them in the past). Tough mentality is never a question. That is why projecting David as a stressful student who flipped (because he was having a below-expectation grades and was terminated from the scholarship) and stabbed his professor because of that reason is just so strange to many people, especially his friends and family. I agree and think that the worst thing that can happen to parents is the death of their kids. So they need to know the truth, and that should come in about a month.

#36,

Where do u get all your exqusite info & latest scoop ? is it from CSI ?

How much of taxpayers money are given out to foreign scholars each year?

Who administers these scholarships? Who takes care of their welfare? Who guides their development? Who ensures that these scholarships given out actually met their goals?

Or does our government just distribute our cash to foreigners for free?

3.5 over 5 is a very basic requirement. It is very easy to attain. there is hardly any need to study very much

now you have some airheads who are speculating that the professor did the killing and not the other way round…. might be probable but much as these airheads try to justify their theory with equally airhead statement like, “you were not in the room, how do u know?”,so,…….. do you? And to thicken the plot, they have started accusing NTU and the singapore police of attempting to cover up? Last I heard, Suharto’s son, who was found irrevocably guilty of assasinating a judge was eventually freed after serving a few years in a luxurious prison. Maybe, many of these indo students having lived in their “proud land of birth, (implied)” with a judicial system and “polis” force characterised by carnal corruption that borders on petty daily pilferages seem to paint ours with the same brush they did theirs… please, dun assume too much unless u were in that room that fateful day?

I believe we should review the quota and kind of foreign students we take in.

Look, all Singapore scholars are bounded by performance indicators (i.e. grades).

And when an Indonesian student fails these performance indicators and stabs an academic staff, there is ho-ha and whatever baseless conspiracy theories on the academic staff and NTU.

I can only gather some of you are fans of Cho Seung-Hui or reading too much Bourne books. And get this, I believe the police has not released the body to the relatives so how do the relatives claim that there not slash mark on the wrist ? (I am no Horatio)

Either way, remember the Flor Contemplacion case in 1991, how the Philippines accused us of “framing” a an innocent person. Eventually, after spending millions of dollars (Phili govt) going around the world to look for answers, the Amercian doctors agreed with singapore doctors who conducted the initial autopsy that it is actually a murder case.

Subsequently, in order not to lose face, the Filippinos and some lovy-dovy Singaporeans conveniently “erase” that portion from their minds when Flor Contemplacion is mentioned.

So it begs the question as to why we are allowing such kinds of foreigners into our universities when honest singaporeans are being deprived of places??

Cut all the craps. Explain the “coincidence” of two related suicide case first. Don’t tell me it’s just another foreigner who can not cope with pressure again. The chinese NTU officer must have committed suicide for other reason unrelated to academic pressure. NTU must reveal the sceleton in the closet. Otherwise, there will be other “time bombs” out there waiting to explode again in the near future

I really pity NTU. They tried so hard to divert the attention to a case of depressed from scholarship termination kind of thing, and may I say, almost succeeded… just days later another “suicide” (yeah, it is questionable, coz I just don’t believe the strait times anymore) took place with spooky coincidence. One Indonesian viewer who found it weird said (I translate), no lightening strike the same place twice. Well said. I hope Singapore’s Police Department can solve both cases a.s.a.p.

Ya, very sad. Is it true that my friend said it was reported in the Chinese mainstream media that Chinese national Zhou Zheng (a Project Officer in NTU) hanged himself dead because he was suffering from AIDS, and was despondent about his medical state?

“Yan”, pleased that you have written a sensible post #47.

We can ask questions, but better wait for the Singapore Police to complete their investigation before we make any conclusion. You are an Indonesian, and I am a Singaportean. And I share the grief over the needless and senseless death of such a promising young man.

I think his scholarship should be terminated.
I would not want to pay money (through the taxes) for anyone who cannot perform up to standard. Would rather pay or support someone who can contribute to our society in the future.