The foreigners in Singapore are different. They are closely vetted and overall help to increase the quality of our gene pool in spite of a few black sheep.
The quality foreign students that you mentioned are just a figment of your own imagination
and the PAP propaganda to achieve their self serving agenda.
Most if not all of these foreigners come from lousy, dubious and unknown schools and many
of their certificate and degrees are purchased from fake university degree mills.
Here are some articles for you to chew on
Talk of the town but also a headache: Little new people to a government scholarship to foreign rotten schools to local universities
Our local universities admit foreign students from lousy high schools
http://www.tremeritus.com/2012/01/30/our-local-universities-admit-foreign-students-from-lousy-high-schools/
I think this is something TRE should investigate and write about. It’s getting out of hands. I’m talking about the tens of thousands of foreigners on scholarships in secondary schools, polys and universities.
They are all fully funded, given tuition grants and allowances. This is what I gathered from one case. One Poly sent a team to Guangzhou to recruit PRC students.
The students who passed the Poly exams were given places in whichever courses they chose. Their high school results were not required for their applications.
They were given tuition grants which would bind them to stay and work in Singapore for 5 years after graduation.
One of the students who came to Singapore found out that her friends from the same high school used only their high school results to get into NTU, NUS and SMU.
She told me she could have applied to university instead.
A lot of her friends are studying in universities for degrees and masters, either on scholarships or given tuition grants.
The concern here is that
thousands of them from lousy high schools were given places in our local universities and our local born and bred Singaporeans have to compete to get in.
Needless to day, with limited places in our three local universities,
many Singaporean students can’t get in.
Yet, these PRC students from their dubious high schools are given scholarships
funded by our taxpayers’ monies and many don’t even have to serve a day of National Service.
When she came to Singapore, she joined a clan that helps foreign students coming from a particular province in China.
She found that many of the members after graduations are all given PR straight away.
All her graduate friends have PR and best of all, most are given high paying jobs in GLCs!
http://singsupplies.com/showthread....rom-lousy-high-schools-with-Free-Scholarships
PAP is shortchanging Singaporeans by only giving 6% of Singaporean university undergraduates scholarships.
Only 6% Of Singaporean University Undergraduates Receive Scholarships
According to the Ministry of Education (MOE), “
on average, about 14% of our undergraduates … in NUS (National University of Singapore) and NTU (Nanyang Technological University of Singapore) in 2001-2005 were on scholarships“.
Of these, only “About one-third of the undergraduate scholars were local students.
Also, according to the MOE, “
the MOE has capped the number of International Student (IS) at 20% of the total intake, while Permanent Residents (PRs) form only a small proportion.
For example, in AY2011, IS comprised 18% while PRs were 4% of undergraduate intake.”
In 2013, the total undergraduate enrollment at the NUS and NTU was 49,463. As 14% would be on scholarships, this would mean that 6,925 students would be on scholarships.
Since two-thirds of those on scholarships would be foreigners, this means that 4,617 of those on scholarships are foreigners.
Next, since 18% of the students are foreign students, there would be a total of 8,903 foreign students.
If 4,617 on them would be on scholarships, this would mean that 52% of the foreign students would be on scholarships.
Also, as only one-third of those are scholarships are Singaporeans, this would mean that only 2,308 Singaporeans would receive scholarships.
However, there are 40,560 Singaporean (and PR) students, which means that only 6% of these students were on scholarships (Chart 1).
http://thehearttruths.com/2013/12/0...iversity-undergraduates-receive-scholarships/
Why does the MOE spend $350m on foreign students?
There are online questions asking why the Ministry of education spends $350 million a year on foreign students in Singapore’s education system.
Is it true the government cares only about foreigners, and ignore the welfare of Singaporeans?
The MOE’s operating budget
MOE’s budget for 2014 is $11 billion. This is for the sole purpose of advancing Singapore and Singaporean’s education.
$350 million spent on foreign students represent less than 3% of the budget a year. Is that a lot or is that too little? Let’s see…
http://www.fivestarsandamoon.com/why-does-the-moe-spend-350m-on-foreign-students/
Singaporean students subsidising foreign scholars
RECENTLY, I befriended a group of scholars from China studying at my alma mater, Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
They were in their late teens and were attending foundation courses in English and maths before starting their undergraduate studies.
In their five-year sojourn at NTU, they will be given free lodging and a monthly allowance of $500 each.
Needless to say, they do not have to pay for their tuition fees. When they graduate, they must work in Singapore for six years as part of their ‘payback” bond.
A highly conservative calculation of their five-year tenure at NTU suggests that each will cost the Government or NTU some $70,000.
That is, $30,000 for their five-year tuition fees, including the charges for their foundation courses, and some $40,000 for hostel accommodation and their monthly stipends.
I graduated from NTU five years ago, with a good honours degree.
I was in the top 15 per cent of my cohort – and performed better than some of these scholars.
While studying at NTU, I had to work as a pizza delivery boy to earn my allowance.
Upon graduation, I had to start paying off a $24,000-student loan.
Why are Singaporeans like me not treated as considerately as such scholars?
My study loan took five years to pay off after I started working.
The China scholars receive financial support, a free education and start their working lives debt free.
Their six-year bond is seen as a contribution to Singapore.
Am I not contributing as much, if not more?
Non-scholar Singaporeans are not treated in quite the same way as foreign talent, regardless of how well we perform.
The disparity is disheartening.
http://geraldgiam.sg/2008/02/singaporean-students-subsidising-foreign-scholars/
Frustrating numbers: scholarships for foreign students
As mentioned in my earlier post
Smoking out tobacco control and foreign student scholarships,
when non-constituency member of parliament Yee Jenn Jong asked the Minister for Education
about the numbers of government-funded scholarships for foreign students,
what he got in reply were a few numbers about scholarships given to students from Asean countries.
Heng Swee Keat, the minister, said, “MOE [the Ministry of Education] awarded around 150 scholarships
annually to students from the ASEAN countries at the pre-tertiary level and another 170 at the undergraduate level.” It was strikingly obvious that the numbers provided in parliament were nowhere near the number of foreign students we see in our universities.
I had remarked then that follow-up questions were called for before we could judge the significance of the answer given.
That’s clearly what Yee did in a recent sitting of the legislature — ask a follow-up question.
While the Hansard has not yet been updated to record the exchange, the Straits Times carried a report. It said:
Around 800 pre-tertiary and 900 undergraduate students from non-Asean countries are awarded scholarships to study here each year, with these scholarships covering tuition and accommodation.
These study awards cost $14,000 for pre-tertiary students and between $18,000 and $25,000 for undergraduates.
The figures were disclosed by Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education Sim Ann in Parliament yesterday in response to a question from Non-Constituency MP Yee Jenn Jong.
— Straits Times, 18 Feb 2012, Foreign scholars closely tracked, by Lin Zhaowei
Straight away you ask, why weren’t these numbers disclosed the first time Yee asked the question?
Why did Heng restrict himself to talking about scholarships for Asean students in the earlier session of parliament when Yee’s question did not confine itself to the region?
Yee had asked about “the annual number of foreigners who were granted scholarships by the Ministry to study in our schools and universities and the annual cost of these scholarships”.
https://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/frustrating-numbers-scholarships-for-foreign-students/
The blind leading the blind on scholarships
I thought
I'd done my final post on the Alvivi saga, but since there have been some pretty stupid statements made by Singaporean government officials,
I couldn't resist responding to those.
I refer you to this article for the source of those quotes -
I am disappointed that the writer of that article didn't question the validity of those statements,
that's just lazy journalism, come on, you can do better than that!
Government Parliamentary Committee chairman for Education Lim Biow Chuan said,
"Why do we give ASEAN scholarships at the secondary and pre-university levels when you don't know how these students will turn out?
Alvin Tan may be smart, but in my opinion, he does not have the character of what we expect of a scholar.
A person's character would have 'come out' by pre-university, so we should make the (school) principal's character assessment of
the student as one of the criteria for the granting of the scholarship," added Mr Lim (MP for Mountbatten).
http://limpehft.blogspot.sg/2012/11/the-blind-leading-blind-on-schoalrships.html
