Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong all want to attract thousands more international students. Malaysia wants 100,000 foreign students by the next academic year, compared with the current 71,000. Singapore hopes to have 150,000 by 2015, up from 97,000 in 2008. Hong Kong has not set specific targets, but recently doubled its quota for nonlocal students in its public universities.
All three are trying to capitalize on being able to offer a university education in English, and for considerably less than what many Western institutions charge, but each has its own selling points.
Singapore, which has only three public universities, has made attracting the involvement of foreign institutions central to its “Global Schoolhouse” policy. Some institutions, like the University of Nevada and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, have established branch campuses in Singapore, and others, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford, offer joint degree programs through local universities.
Toh Wee Khiang, executive director for human capital at the Singapore Economic Development Board, said the government aimed not only to attract and develop talent, but also to retain it. “The war for talent is at the heart of economic growth, and education plays an important part in creating and sustaining talent in Singapore,” he said, adding that another government agency was linking graduating students with Singaporean employers in key growth industries.
Read the remainder at New York Times
I am surprised no Singaporeans are ranting on this thread that we are loosing university places to foreigners. Haha.. Maybe because it is the weekend.
To Oxford Dude,
Privately, I have been ranting about this for years… but as the years gone by I am getting increasingly disillusioned.
What purpose does the ranting serves… when people continues to be apathy and MSM continues to be biased?
I have mates who are totally unaware of the foreign talent policy in our local unis despite they themselves graduating from local unis as well.
Anyway, I have moved from ranting about this to other issues like rising cost of living and highfalutin ideologies now. Hahaha!
Is Singapore going to be a land of milk and honey for wealthy Asians?
I say YES AND YES.Wealthy Asians and South Asians are parking their
wealth and children in this little red dot.Financial institutions are ready to welcome
them and their possessions with opened arms with the blessing from our ruling
party.Brace yourselves Singaporeans,things are not going to look prettier.Assuming
that is no major world meltdown of economy say,in the next five years ,everything from basic food to real estates,education will cost a lot more.I believe the intake of new foreign students could reach as high as 150,000 students in the next 2 yrs and
not 2015 in what the above mentioned report has predicted.No wonder our government is building more schools of about 15 for the next 5to 7yrs.
You may ask why a sudden surge of global wealths are coming into
Singapore and not ,say America or some European countries.Here is my take on
it.After 44 yrs of independence,Singapore has matured into a 1st world nation.
Is there a nation in this planet which is comparable to the size of Singapore did
a much better work than Singapore?Correct me if i have missed out a country in
Africa or Asia.Singapore has rated among the top 5 nations in the world as the
least corrupt country.Remember,I did not say corruption free but least corrupt.
Our banking institutions have a less stringent policy in depositing foreign monies
as compared to north America and some of the western countries.Just as a
reminder to those who advocate Singapore should follow and align with the
western world in banking transparency should think twice.Up until what had happened in 9/11incident,the western world had the same banking rules as
Singapore’s.They changed the rule of the game not because they are now more
moralistic than Singapore.It was for another reason.Lastly,citizens around the
world would prefer to have their monies in a safe place like in Singapore as it has
proven over again and again that it is trustworthy .
If I were one of those who felt that they have been left behind in this
global economy,why not take this unpleasant situation as an opportunity to
advance yourselves.Perhaps,learn to be a teacher to teach foreign students or
open up your home to them and use it to supplement your income.
Ehh, I’m actually interested in a place in Hong Kong now that you mention it.
[i]Mr. E on September 28th, 2009 1.15 pm Ehh, I’m actually interested in a place in Hong Kong now that you mention it.[/i]
i had an indonesian client who wanted to send her precious daughter who is still residin in singapore but had to place her daughter into any foreign university…
hongkong was her first choice..but somehow alon the pathway..she endup in london..finally graduated..came home chorborlan (did nothin useful) now settin up her owned biz with her mom’s hardearned investments…
goodluck to her………….
It is quite Perplexing and rather amusing to a point of “clownish”
1. If Singapore Educational System is world class, why is that there is a need for FTs? Either the system is failing or the people are not so bright
2. The government is spending more and more money for A Star, Presidential Scholarship and what not. Yet there is still need for FTs?
3. All the the ministers are supposedly bright and went to Ivy League and what not, yet the result is dissapointing? Why is that?
4. Someone challenged me with this question before. Do you trust Dr. From India, or from NUS more? My answer was definitely the obvious NUS. And he asked me further, Why is that? I said the best medical school and technology.
OK he said, let me ask you this? How many patients or cases do future medical officers in NUS see before they graduate? I have no answer for that. Then he said, do you know how many cases future Medical Officers in India see before they graduate? Not just by numbers, but by social status, type of diet, locality, ethenicity, income level, all these are the important learning curve that they have and hands on. Not just by what they hear or read from journal. Then he continued, now do you understand what does GOOD ON PAPER Means?
5. If you notice most of the angmoh when they become bosses here, they even prefer to hire the foreigner not the locals. Why is that? Perhaps, what one of the Angmoh banker told me before the office closed during the 1997-1998 crisis said is true. It is a simple case of Myopic, because we believe so much that we are the best, we just don’t look any other way, thus we fail to understand diversity and our learning curve is restricted.
6. A lot of time the most educated of us can quote hundreds and hundreds of references and citing Drucker, Collin, Blue Ocean, Six Sigma, Emotional Economy, experience economy bla bla bla…, but we often fail to answer “what does it actually mean to us, to our country, to our people and to our economy. That’s what is happening to the million dollar ministers currently. The answer they are trying to find is not in the books or journals. If they still haven’t waken up yet, the people, authors, and the experts that wrote the books , journals are the same people who are residing in the west. If they were that good as their books, jounals or literaure sound, their homeland wouldn’t be in this much trouble now.
Reply to #6-passerby
All your questions can be answered easily.Either you are a foreigner who have not lived in Singapore before or have not kept in touch with the local news.Singapore
educational system is indeed 1st class.Why do you think named brand universities
from USA ans Australia are so eager to be co-partners with local ones?I hardly heard of local graduates who have applied for oversea universities to further their
education have been rejected due to their low standard of achievement.In fact,
Singapore is producing smart kids.Do you know that a ordinary primary six school kid here write English and solves arithmetic problems better than an grade 10th
student in north America.Right after he was in the oval office,President Obama told
the press media in USA, that he would like a introduce Singapore educational
system in to America schools,especially those in the ghettos and slump areas.
Secondly,FTs are here not because they are better off than us,in term
of education,but if they can do the same jobs as us,why not?Labor cost are
drastically reduced;noCPF contributions from the employers,paying lower wages
,also getting angmohs as bosses can help the company to connect to the
outside world(in Chinese we called it ‘Kang tioew’).
You must realize that when Singapore signed on the dotted line
of the FTA,we have given away some of our sovereignty and has become a part
of the global community,which means your gahment has rules to follow.For
example,if a billionaire from Singapore wants to open up a casino in Las Vegas
it has to be reciprocated.Personally,I like free trade but there is always a dark side
of it,just like Capitalism.
7) preston loon on September 29th, 2009 4.53 am
Exactly my point. ” we often fail to answer “what does it actually mean to us, to our country, to our people and to our economy.”
If all the good things do not benefit our own people, it is as good as “GOOD ON PAPER”. It is like having LV boutique in town, where most of them can only afford to pass by but can’t afford to purchase, own and enjoy it.
Meantime, Obama also said he wants to learn from our north neigbour on how that neighbour handles the 1997-98 crisis and save the banks from the sub-prime crisis. Did he really mean that?
It followed by Havard Business School is doing a case study on “Najibnomics”, about how the north neighbour handles the current crisis. Does it make sense at all?
It is all PR talk. Ho Ching among the most powerul women in the world etc. etc. etc. In case you haven’t notice a lot of PR is going around from the US, because they need us to hold their bonds, currency etc.
“Foreign balance is no longer dubious as the US in present day is the largest debtor in the world with total public debt amounting to USD 11.6 Trillion. These numbers are made up of debts owed to individuals, corporations and foreign governments, who have purchased Treasury, Bills, Notes and Bonds. The remaining is due to the government itself, and is held as Government Account securities which largely constitute of Social Security and other trust funds. Foreign countries holdings of Treasury Bonds grew from 13% in 1988 to 28% in 2009 totaling $3.2 trillion. China owns 23% and Japan owns 21%. The U.K., Brazil and the oil exporting countries own about 5% each. It is interesting to note that , “The Bureau of International Settlements (BIS) suspects that much of the holdings by Belgium, Caribbean Banking Centers and Luxembourg (6%) are fronts for various oil-exporting countries or hedge funds that do not wish to be identified” (Federal Budget, 2009).”
Trust me about Foreign Universities clamoring to open branches here, “They don’t come cheap”, a lot of incentives were involved. If they have their ways, they would rather open it in China or India. A population of one state or province alone can fill in the numbers within days. But these countries have a very strict policy of protecting their education industry. Take India for example, the potential stdents are not only categorized by their IQ but also by how much money they have. The higher end still opt for US and UK. The middle group settle for Asia,
It is noble to be patriotic, but is it worth it if the government doesn’t reciprocate? Be thankful when people critize us, for it means we need to improve, but be weary when people praise us for not all of the time they are sincere.
When countries signed on free trade with one another, of coz there must be a price to pay. You know anything made in China are not safe but what to do? We still have to import them. However, those consumers who have the means has an option whether to purchase or not.
I guess we need not care about statistics of other country, we just need a place in the Uni that we’ve worked so hard for!