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Several hundred foreigners study free in NUS NTU every year
Ensure bulk of scholarships go to Singaporeans
THE reply by the National University of Singapore (NUS) last Saturday ('NUS' merit-based admissions policy puts Singaporeans first') to Mr Adam Liew ('The 'Singaporean first' myth'; last Thursday) stated that there is a clear differentiation of benefits between Singaporeans and international students.
According to NUS, Singaporeans are automatically entitled to subsidised education, and that there are schemes in place to ensure that needy Singaporean students are not denied a tertiary education.
There are several hundred scholarships, covering tuition fee and living expenses, awarded yearly to foreign nationals to study selected undergraduate programmes at NUS and Nanyang Technological University.
These scholarships, funded by the Ministry of Education, require recipients to work in any Singapore-registered company for a period of three or six years after graduation.
My concern is that millions of taxpayer dollars are spent in funding these scholarships while many Singaporeans are deprived of places in local universities and must pay much more to study abroad.
The ministry must review and tweak its policy. It can reassure Singaporeans by ensuring that the majority of government-funded scholarships go to them.
Edwin Lim
Ensure bulk of scholarships go to Singaporeans
THE reply by the National University of Singapore (NUS) last Saturday ('NUS' merit-based admissions policy puts Singaporeans first') to Mr Adam Liew ('The 'Singaporean first' myth'; last Thursday) stated that there is a clear differentiation of benefits between Singaporeans and international students.
According to NUS, Singaporeans are automatically entitled to subsidised education, and that there are schemes in place to ensure that needy Singaporean students are not denied a tertiary education.
There are several hundred scholarships, covering tuition fee and living expenses, awarded yearly to foreign nationals to study selected undergraduate programmes at NUS and Nanyang Technological University.
These scholarships, funded by the Ministry of Education, require recipients to work in any Singapore-registered company for a period of three or six years after graduation.
My concern is that millions of taxpayer dollars are spent in funding these scholarships while many Singaporeans are deprived of places in local universities and must pay much more to study abroad.
The ministry must review and tweak its policy. It can reassure Singaporeans by ensuring that the majority of government-funded scholarships go to them.
Edwin Lim
