By Leong Sze Hian
I refer to media reports about all three Singapore public universiti
es raising fees for the incoming cohort of students.
For example, the National University of Singapore (NUS) will raise fees by four to ten per cent.
Since NUS’s web site states that “The University will also lift the one-year fee increase deferment that was implemented in AY2009/2010, and implement the previously published tuition fees from AY2010/2011 for the AY2009 cohort”, the actual increase is by eight to 21 per cent for normal courses and law/pharmacy, and not by four to ten per cent.
In this regard, last year’s tuition was $6,360 (normal courses) and $7,340 (law/pharmacy), which will increase to $6,890 and $8,890 respectively.
According to NUS’s annual report ended March 2009, it had a Deficit for the Year of $589 million, and Accumulated Surplus of $1.6 billion.
For 2008, it had a Surplus for the Year of $183 million.
As its Net Investment Loss for 2009 was $677 million, does it mean that the Deficit of $589 may be due primarily to the Net Investment Loss?
Since global equity markets (MSCI World Index) have recovered by about 75 per cent from the lowest point in March 2009, is there a pressing need to increase fees by up to 21 per cent, given that the Accumulated Surplus is $1.6 billion?
In this connection, Singapore is just coming out of its worse recession, with 60,100 unemployed residents as of December and wages fell by 3.2 per cent in real terms in 2009.
So, shouldn’t we be cautious in starting to raise fees so soon, like the recently announced increase in Service and Conservancy Charges and polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education fees?
With Endowment Funds of $1.56 billion, does it mean that NUS lost about 43 per cent in investing in just one year ($677 million Net Investment Loss divided by $1.56 billion Endowment Funds)?
Its Net Investment Loss for 2008 was only $6.4 million.
For comparative purposes, according to NTU’s 2009 annual report for the same period, it had a Deficit for the Year of $130 million, Accumulated Surplus of $1.5 billion, Funds and resources of $1.5 billion. and Loss on Investments of $276 million.
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If they can kick out all the PAP balls carryer’s, they might honestly save alot more. Instead, they should think about that for cost savings, not raise fees.
It looks like more good years, under the PAP. In terms of inflation.
It was only reported last year that NUS following the trend of other reputable world-class universities, invested most of its endowment funds to generate better returns for the benefit of NUS’s academia and students. And now it is reported that it needs to increase its fees. So they rather not dip into the invested funds but choose to increase the coffers by raising fees again.
Do we see a similar trend with the investment funds by Temasek/GIC funds and the local Town Council ? There goes a vicious cycle where additional funds are further generated by raising fees and taxes to sustain any increased costs and any remaining funds left are further sucked into this deep black hole of no return.
The only casualty are propably the ordinary Singaporean family who will have to tighten their belts further in order to put their kids through local universities, assuming they qualify. Maybe the occasional holiday or eating at restaurants can wait. Maybe higher living standards can be achieved once the kids graduate and find some jobs.
But our Ministers’ pay increases are well overdue. Its rather urgent otherwise no PAP Minister would want to serve us. That is what the old wise man once said, if I interpret correctly.
It’s rather akin to having selfish parents who rather that their coffin monies in the bank not be touched than to save their own dying children who have been diagnosed with some terminal disease. If only our PAP leaders are not so obsessed with this welfare siege mentality and only concerned with their own welfare, Singaporeans would have looked forward to a better kind of living standards that others can only envy.
Excuse me, who are those nerds who run NUS? Nerds are still nerds even they envision to emulate the way those ivy-league Universities in the US in setting up endowment fund for investment to enhance NUS’s asset, without marvelous prodigies who has nature’s business acumen and innate with adventurer’s spirit.
NUS’s nerds are just pure boot-lickers and risk-adverse idiots.
who is in charged? which bloomin minister? ello ALL ministers…
nabei…recentLEE our prince the prime minister says just a little increased..than shortlegg says hdb is affordtables..dr khaw says don’t get sicked..you are not licensed to die either..
now uni fees goes up again…what am i goin to do with my nieces and nephew? asked them to drop out and be maids?
wow, i did pharm in mid 90s. i remember paying $4600 plus for it.
15 years later, the course fee is doubled!
talk about increasing COST of living under PAP.
dammit im already working so many odd jobs to help pay my school fees that it affect my schoolwork. And now increase….??? lucky i not included in the new scheme….
before the election the pigs are already going ahead to increase the sc&c and educational fee.
Just wait and see what they will do after the election which they assume that they will surely win.
What about government grants? Are they increasing or decreasing? This price increases exercises are just for the convenience of differentiate between Singaporean students, PRs and foreign students.
Next differentiation exercise will be done on conservancy and service charges island wide, so expect all town councils to increase C&S charges soon PR households pay more than Singaporean household. The next will be PUB charges increases, there will be PR and non-citizen tax on PUB usage.
Singapore should introduce a government directed student loan scheme like Oz.
Incredible that past graduates are asked to contribute to the endowment fund so that some incompetent guys can blow it all away….not a good endorsement for its Business School – never heard of low risk investments like fixed income instruments?
Gd stuff. Thanks
As is evident, this administration is all about Making Money or Saving Money – for themselves.
The People on the other end, will either Slog On or Beat It.
If they could reduce the extremely high salaries or the MPS and Ministers, that savings could be used to supplement the so called “losses” incurred by the Universities!
if NUS makes a loss JUST because it made shitty investments, it’s none of the students’ business.
when they make profit, no one get a share. when they make loss, everyone pays.
but of course, in Singapore, no one understands that.
Singaporeans are like cows. here for the government and companies to milk dry.
As we have seen in the past pre-election year, they usually throw goodies and now they are openly doing all these without fear of back-stash.
I think they are getting very bold and blatant, possibly they know how to win back the 2 seats from HG and PP and plus killing chances of possible wins in Aljunied or Tampines GRCs. I think they are probably very confident of winning and this is why they are unusually bolder in churning these bad policies.
I’m sure costs of living has long risen since 15 years ago. PAP is not entirely at fault for the increase in school fees. However, that said, as people above might say, the increase may be attributed to other factors as well.
I am actually interested as well if there is a proportionate increase in the Tuition Grant, i am also concerned that local university education should remain affordable to locals to enroll, that our human capital should not be compromised for financial gains.
who audits the books?
why not have another independent person like Mr Leong to audit the books?
Like this all questions answered.
I think this increase is untimely. Despite all the clamouring that an economic recession is over, we are far from safe. Economies are still faced with periods of instability and that will definitely cause further problems to people, and of course, their children who wants to enter the public universities
I feel its just an opportunity to implement what is wanted in the past in this lull period. Honestly, i feel its in bad taste though…
Hopefully this will wake up more students in the various universities that the political change in Singapore is long overdue and if you keep voting them in, you get this kind of crappy decisions that are not beneficial to the citizens of the country
1. Increase foreign levies — checked
2. Increase property price — checked
3. Increase service&con charges — checked
4. Increase ERP — checked
5. Increase COE — checked
6. Increase Education fee — checked
7. Increase vehicle insurance — checked
8. Increase electricity bills — checked
9. Increase army pay and defence — checked
10. Increase blood pressure — to check
Which other ministries’ expenses increment on the card?
home affair, trade&industry, culture, sport, ministry without files, ntuc, …………..
oh ya, I forget to increase PRODUCTIVITY, Babies — still in progress
does the highly talented ypap people know where money is spent on?
I mean as clearly as an auditor knows?
do they know?
i their admirer wor. i hope they know as i won’t e surprised if they know since i idolise them because they so smart and intelligent and wise and enlightened wor.
Deficit? Professors are overpaid.
@ My Views
taking money from students, to make more money that the students will never see, is a good idea.
but if students are paying the extra for the NUS to fill up the hole it created, then they should receive shares and/or dividends.
lol, of course, that is not gonna happen. SGreans are good to milk money from.
Wait till u see how many Foreign Thrash and shake legs management are employed in NUS.
Parties + Parties. Good luck. 900 million out of the 10 billions education budget. i.e. 10% of the education budget. Where does it goes to? More scholarship payout to the immigrants? More jobs for the Foreign Thrash. More pay to the management? Wow. Just increase tuition fees. Just keep on blowing hon on how good we are. One day, when everyone wakes up, it will be too late. Those who rip off from the current system will run with all the cash.
Corruption is already in. Is too late to clean house. Too late.
//My Views
//This chap Leong Sze Hian is a silly man.
Leong is a great man writing enlightening articles on Singapore.
He is proably the most widely read author about S’pore on the internet.
//The word “investment” means one could make profit or loss.
I didn’t know this.
It sounded like the outcome of gambling.
You google that and won’t get that outcome.
Loss of an investment of over 500 million over a year is gambling.
//If blue chip investment banks like Lehman Brothers and Citibank could collapse or incur //huges losses,
Why benchmark yourself against the worse?
Citibank had LKY on its board and it didn’t stop them from messing up over the years to lead to its definite downfall.
As if the seeds of these companies were planted over night…
Excuses, excuses again.
if only being a leader is that simple…
//why should NUS’s investments be spared from the economic crisis?
It should have strive not to be affected because it is a public institution of higher learning and should have adopted an investment strategy that suits its risk profile.
It is like AIG failing for doing some business it should not be doing like writing CDS. Do you see many other insurance companies failing like AIG?
Losing HUGE public monies should not be condoned so that it does not become a public tradition.
Giving excuses does not help learning from the process and will quasi-ensure these losses will happen again.
But how do we know How the ‘Deficit’ really come about?
But i am sure singaporean undergrads being so highly praised for having high education knows?
Price differentiation between citizen, PR and WP holders…..(not just in schooling, but all fields)…. dont make the mistake.
From some reliable source…. this is the government ploy to ensure more PRs will convert to citizenships, not to applease the anger of the citizens. The government realised that, throwing in all the benefits still fail to entice the PRs to convert to citizenships, now they are adding another entice (price differentiation) so that they can enhance their life-line………… meanwhile, painting a nice picture to the angered-citizens. The Gov did their calculations, they need that number of Nuovo-Citizens to help their election, and that is also why election is delayed, for the price-differentiation to work.
That is why, Readers, there is no other way. We can only wait painfully for the flushing of the hum by nature brand toilet. Then all possibilities come.
stop having false hopes. you’ll get disappointed.
The 2010 annual reports are not out yet. Leong is using 2009 data that may no longer be applicable. But taz all that is publicly available.
Undergrads shld be sending this article to their bursars and asking whether Leong’s linkage is factually correct based on the 2010 numbers
And undergrads shld alert TOC when the 2010 reports become publicly available. Better still analyse them. Don’t let Leong do all the work.
And adding to NS lock — lots of scholarships for foreigners a uni lecturer told me.
With Endowment Funds of $1.56 billion, does it mean that NUS lost about 43 per cent in investing in just one year ($677 million Net Investment Loss divided by $1.56 billion Endowment Funds)?
How come so much lost in a year? is it the same case as reported by MBT hdb lost $2billion last year when so many flats are sold with sky rocketed pricings, and was reported making abt $70K per 4 rm unit sold…..????? something must be going very wrong in the MIW system here.
The school fees should be correlated with the starting salaries of graduates. It doesn’t make sense for fees to increase if the starting salaries decrease.
Is this true? If not, NUS should open its books and dispute this. If so, NUS must openly re-examine its methods. Keeping quiet will not benefit the country.
What our society lack is a culture of openess, debates and checks and balances. This is what saddens me.
Guys, nothing in Singapore makes sense any more.
NUS … big joke. China lecturers who cannot speak proper english, lecturers who are more interested in research than teaching, lecturers who cannot teach at all…..
And now they want to increase fees? Again?
And NUS even got the cheek to solicit donations from alumni. Only stupid fools and the rich donate to them.
Crazy Singapore. Everything also money. After graduation, it takes the poor grad a few years to pay off his or her study loan. Then only start saving money proper.
Then wait till like 30 or early 30s to get married. Realize then money not enough still. Then need to buy pathetic small 4 room flat enough for 2-3 to live comfortably in that costs $450-500k. Then signed 30 year loan mortgage .
By that time, both couple already 65 years old. Realize money still not enough for retirement. Got to work for another 10-15 years (hopefully still good health but bones and muscles soften a lot by then).
And if got kids (what kids???!) got to provide for their education, see them thru till their 20s and the cycle probably repeats itself… but a lot worse!
Want to buy car also difficult cos too expensive. Everywhere you go, got to carry things around, juggling baby in one hand or carrying that large pram. And stupid Singaporeans who refuse to give way or rush into the trains and buses do not help at all. So what if you have good transportation network? Useless.
Crazy kind of living….