Are foreigners depriving locals of places in NUS, NTU and SMU? (Part 1)
September 23rd, 2009 | 
Author: By Amanda Lian, Social Correspondent
We are sure you are all very concerned about the issue of the influx of International Students at our local universities and whether it has affected the local students adversely. And so, this article is going to look into anecdotal perspectives of whether foreign (International) students are really depriving locals of places in the few Universities in Singapore, and to what extent.
With some evidence, though which may not be enough, this is my take on the issue and hopefully, we would be able to gain further knowledge on this widely debated issue.
We will look into two main points in the hope of coming to a conclusive answer:
1. Statistics have been available to the Singapore public that there has been an increased intake of foreign students. So has this in relation affected the local students who are eligible and made it harder to get enrolled?
2. Since only 5% of Polytechnic graduates are eligible for University admission, should we as a nation, reconsider that number and ultimately, decide again on the intake of foreign students in the local Universities?
Although on this topic and these points will come up in our minds from time to time, we must also clarify that the answers to them are also able to stand on their own.
However, although we might say that it is harder for local students to enter Universities but we are also open to other factors that might affect this conclusion. So before we move into the actual main points, we are going to cover some of these factors.
Any caveats? A word of warning first though, this is not an official study but a compilation of all the information that we have our hands on. Therefore, our answers are still highly debatable and tentative to most citizens out there.
Why are more and more foreigners coming to Singapore to study? Are there some advantages that they see by flying all the way here?
To be truthful, yes there are, including achieving citizenship status more efficiently. On the other hand, would the government be viewing this as devaluing the status of our local citizens?
There are definitely stereotype values that foreigners from the West are more valuable than our comrades from the East for some reasons.
Would this make Singapore a lost haven? One which we had worked so hard to attain – a haven for people of higher intellect? And because of that, maybe we can also consider why all our high flyers or brain children are going overseas for tertiary education instead.
As said in the second main point above, only 5 percent of Polytechnic graduates are eligible for admission into universities and these graduates have to get a minimum grade point average of 3.5. Yet, how many of these eligible graduates actually have priority to fit into that 5 percent and how many of these are foreigners?
Out of all the polytechnic students in a certain intake, 10 percent of them are foreigners. Besides that, shouldn’t scholarships be given out to Singaporean students only, just like most of the other countries?
Yes, we are definitely in the know about the new University that is coming up and building that is still using the taxpayers’ money right?
Although it is targeted at the local polytechnic graduates, it is still new and has to build a name and reputation for itself from scratch!
Another factor to note is that admissions to the local universities are perceptibly different for polytechnic students because they are admitted and enrolled based on paper qualifications or more colloquially, scores rather than skills while they are being trained in that area while in their course.
I fully agree that they are generally enrolled into second year University modules because of their advanced standings but how many graduates actually make it through the admission’s interview in the first place?
Now after listing down so many factors, let us go into the main point of whether our local students are being deprived of places in our handful of Universities by foreigners.
The answer to it is actually quite easy: “Apparently not”.
As said by the former Senior Minister of State (Education) Aline Wong in 2000:
“All local students who qualify will have a place in Singapore’s educational institutions and Singaporeans get priority in primary and secondary schools and junior colleges”.
From what I gather here, foreign students do not interfere with the competitive education environment with us, other than the JC and Polytechnic divide.
On the other hand, as far as us, the citizens know, it is the policies that the Education Ministry has set a benchmark on and the university admissions department has to strictly adhere to the intake numbers of local students and foreign students and the both of them are not correlated.
[To be continued in Part 2 tomorrow]
About the Author:
Amanda Lian graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English Language, Creative writing and Child Psychology from the University of Western Australia. She worked as a staff writer for Hardwarezone and is currently an editorial executive at Cre8 Singapore Pte Ltd.
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I feel that the foreigners are depriving the locals of places in the three local universities.
Let us take the College of Engineering in NTU for example. Though I do not have the exact statistic, but I can sense a large number of foreign students there(I’m a local student there) as compared to the other faculties. On the other hand, I know that there are many of my peers being rejected from NTU. I understand that their grades has a part to play for this outcome, but I still think that more vacancies should be given to these students instead of the foreigners. Though they may have fallen in the A level, but if a second chance is given to them, there is a high possibility they will cherish it.
We should take good care of our own citizens before giving the opportunities to the outsiders. I’m not saying that we should close the door to foreigner, but the proportionality can be further adjusted.
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yes they are! pls export them out soon…
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I don’t know what this article is trying to say.
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Well, those students that are rejected by the local university would probably question themselves if they are not as good or they are really not good.
One of my friends who scored quite well in her A level is good enough to enroll herself into an Engineering faculty but not good enough to be enrolled into a course that she is interested in.
However, given that she has some As and 1 B and 1 C, she believes she is able to get a place. Too bad, this is not the case. What can she think at this point of time? Well, she just said foreigners.
Just sit around in SIM, occasionally you can hear A level students questioning themselves if they are really not as good as a foreign students. What could be the next question they will be asking in future? One of my friends who is a graduate from SIM put this remark in her MSN: “why I do not feel like a Singaporean when I am one”.
Fact finding can be quite positive but what about in general what does each and every student feels and thinks about this? Do local students believe that their right of having an education has been taken away from them and given to a foreigner? If so, no doubt that Singaporeans are leaving.
I am too seriously thinking of leaving this place once I got a CPA status. Really, I do not see the point of using my parent’s money to study in a private college and serving national service once every year while foreigners are given free education or even free meal from the government. What is left for the locals?
If this can happen to me or my friends, I doubt that this will not happen to my future generation.
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Singapore always ensures that the universities are Ivory Towers. The doors for entry have been very narrow for locals who want to pursue a tertiary education. The system does not encourage creative thinking but plagiarism, despite all the shows to curb copy right infringement. Plagiarism is part of Asian culture, and Singapore has not grown out of it.
Also, English as a primary medium for Education is a major road block for many local talents. Singaporeans in general are not native English speakers. However, the education focused primarily on the use of English. The irony is, majority of the English teachers in schools nationwide speaks and write Singlish and variant. The local students are also burdened to learn a second language. Singaporeans are not aware that they are speaking a form of English which is comical and hard to understand by native English speakers. Strictly speaking, the education system has handicapped the local, relative to other Asians.
Unlike Singapore, Korea, China or India has many institutions open for their citizens to pursue tertiary education. While there are a handful of institutions that are of certain standards, most of the renowned ones have an over inflated reputation. These countries have provided many scholarships to individuals to study PhD in American universities. Most, if not all of these scholars never returned to serve their country but became American citizens or green card holders.
A big number of these individuals do not want to return to their home land for obvious reasons. They have found that Singapore is a place they come to pursue their dreams. And the Singapore government gladly does so. The local tertiary institutions have been opened to many Chinese, Indian, Korean, and Malaysian and others. As a result, for the past two decades, the NUS and NTU were flooded with non Singaporean dominating important posts.
Would you believe that these individuals would want to lose their competitive edge and loose out to Singaporeans? No, they bring in their own people and form their own little circles. We can see there are departments dominated by Indians and Chinese. Are these people really concerned about Singapore? No, they want a bigger pay check and they believe Singaporeans are foolish.
I have no issue about foreigners working in Singapore. But the system has been so foolish that locals will have NO CHANCE to have an Equal Opportunity to develop a career in a Foreigner Dominated environment. I speak of my own experience. I was in a national research body prior to the formation of A*. Out of the 100 researches, I was the only Singaporean who holds a western PhD; the rest were mainly PRC PhD (?) waiting for an opportunity to jump to USA universities. It was crazy. I eventually resigned and moved on to an American company. Since then I never wanted to have anything to do with local research centers. It is a waste of tax payer’s money to fund non value added work in the name of research for third world opportunity seekers.
The influx of foreigners is not a new issue. It has been rampant for the past two decades. I always strongly enrage everyone: Do not strangle your kids by sending them to a third class university run by people who speaks very bad English and does not know how to teach. For the same amount of money, they can get a much better future studying in Australia or if possible, in USA.
If you check the research quality of the local universities, their papers are not of very high standards. Some might be doing free work for China or India, and the system has no way to identify these loop holes. If you want to talk education, compare with the best universities in UK or US.
The truth is Singaporeans subsidizes many PRC students to study locally. They get free money and they are promised a job.
This is a very foolish policy. Kids who have not been thru the test of real life work are just kids. You instill an overly inflated confidence in them; they will only become a burden for everyone one day. Unfortunately, this has been going on for a long time. No wonder Singapore productivity has dropped. And I recently interviewed a Singaporean PhD. He was actually a PRC who studied for free in Singapore. His English was a superb form of Chinglish. His skills in his field of study were astonishingly – bad. It will be a joke to employ him.
I believe many of you who have had experiences in the professional field dealing with PRC, can agree that some of them are good, but majority are just down right knucklehead.
On one hand, Singapore demands its people to pass English with flying colors to be admitted into education. But on the other hand, Singapore allows free loaders who could not even speak English to snap up tertiary education or even teach in universities. This is a two prong hammering on the locals.
Unfortunately, this will carry on. I believe Singapore will one day become history. Hong Kong has the backing of Chinese government. Singapore has nothing to fall back on. Good luck.
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this article has no flow and direction…please make sure articles are coherent enough before posting here if not it is just making wayangparty more of a garmen bashing anything also can bash with website
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i think the local universities rating and standing on the world stage are not spectacular. i dare say we will never be in the same league as the top 20 uni in the world. what surveys the government collected and published in the local papers are insignificant and merely cosmetic in nature.
given this scenario, i think the government should adopt the policy to educate our local boys and girls , to bring the local workforce up to world standard, rather than bringing in top talented students from outside, and hoping that they will drive the research works and hence achieve a good university ranking .
our local students are not given the assurances of getting a place in the local uni if they meet the criteria. I believe the entrant requirements are kept close to the chest of the university management. this bias intake selection is leaning towards the foreign students.
what more can we say about this present government.
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I totally agree with Singaporean. The three U in SIN are indeed Ivory towers. The entry doors for locals, especially grads from local Poly are indeed very narrow. The three U would rather offer the place to foreigners who they perceived are much smarter and more intelligent than locals. It is indeed very sad that locals are deprived of U places in their own country. Indeed, this will carry on and locals (especially poly grads) will forever be treated like second class citizens. I believe less than 5% of local poly grads are able to get into the three local U each year. This is indeed a very small number. Maybe the percentage of foreign students intake is much higher.
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Singaporean,
Your comment is spot on!Although I’m studying at NUS,I don’t really like the culture there.I’ve a deferred offer at a prestigious UK university.Once I’ve the opportunity to study overseas,I’m definitely going to withdraw my place from the overly inflated NUS.
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people pls wake up.. university entrance systems in developed countries operate on similar principles: if you are good enough, it doesn’t matter where you are from. It is where the brightest minds are further nurtured. It’s ridiculous to blame foreigners for your own inability/lack of intellectual capabilities.. and its stupid to ask MOE to give chance so that locals who aren’t as deserving can get places. Stop dreaming, university places are not guaranteed for all.
and if you can get out of singapore for a tertiary education, please do..
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@anon, why do you not like the culture at NUS? Just curious. I’m not particularly fond of the culture there either. Some of my reasons are: It’s hyper competitive, not just between foreign student and locals, but between local and local students to the point that some people are unable to relax. Certain faculties feel like they’re completely filled with people from the same schools again. Uninspired and sometimes, government-gagged teaching.
But otherwise, it has a reputation for giving a solid basic education and a decent NUS grad would find himself employable most anywhere.
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Michelle,
1)There’s a considerable number of foreigners in my faculty.Especially my major.Out of the entire student population taking my major,70% are PRC.Most of them have prior knowledge of some of level 1000 module.Most,if not all,are able to answer all the lecture quiz questions which the locals think is quite hard.Imagine that those foreigners will be the ones who will compete with you for iron rice bowl.
2)Just my experience.I met few lecturers who are not really receptive to alternative views and who insist that they’re right.Do you really expect an university education to be like this?
Eh,are you still studying at one of the local unis?Instead of talking about the employability,let’s talk about the type of employment that a local graduate will get.
1)Life sciences.70% of life sciences grads go on to work in other sectors that are unrelated to their specialisation.Why?The reason is that with that level of knowledge,they can’t go into local research centres,which only hire people who’re pursuing their PhD locally or have obtained their PhD.They end up working as financial planners,teachers,insurance agents,etc.What about the remaining 30%?They do work in research centres,but as ‘washing test tube’ warriors.
2)Engineering.Only 50% moves on to engineering sector.What about the other 50%?I believe that majority of them go on to work in financial sector in which the skills learnt in engineering are transferable.Do they realise that the job prospects in engineering is not any better?Or is it due to the fact that the companies tend to hire foreigners at a cheaper price,which the locals find unacceptable?As you know,best companies attract best engineers,and best engineers attract to best pay.The companies are still focusing on manufacturing aspects instead of moving on to product design.How’re the engineering sector going to flourish if they still focus on their labours to generate profit?
3)Finance.I believe that most of SMU grads and some from NUS and NTU move on to work in financial sector.However,very few positions are highly sophisticated,such as investment bank division,quant,etc.What I see is that most positions are more of back office,such as wealth management,accountancy,financial planners,etc.In the near future when the foreigners dominate the financial sector,locals may have hard time working with them.Do note that once the next recession comes,they’re affected and might risk losing their jobs.
This could be really shocking.I’ve to tell you that 35% of the Singapore population are foreigners.Once you graduate,what’d you do to remain competitive relative to the foreigners?In fact 6 in 10 who are recently hired are foreigners.Hmm and how would you ensure that you’d lead a comfortable life after clearing all your housing instalments with enough retirement funds in the future?There’s a significant number of professionals in their mid 30s or early 40s who’re retrenched and can’t find any other decent jobs.Is it just due to age discrimination?Or is it due to the fact that the companies want to replace them with fresh grads who’re foreigners?Why is their working experience not valuable to the companies?Fyi,all professionals in these age who’re degree holders form 5% of the entire age cohort.What about the subsequent generations?I shudder to think.
A decent NUS grad will find himself employable?As a foreigners,almost 100% true because it’s cheaper to hire them.As a local,very hard to say.Anywhere?In Singapore or globally?
I only think that local degree from any of the local unis is good because it enables the grads to be factory workers so as to drive the economic growth.
We’re not mere economic digits.Those who can’t get into local unis are actually blessing in disguise.
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Anon
I worked in NUS more than a decade ago. The hyper competitive atmosphere is not just within the student population, it was very real among the academic staff. The Singapore university has a serious disjoint with the industry. I spare the political struggles of many academic staffs. But I can share about a guy who was awarded prestigious engineering awards in Europe; he failed miserably doing his PhD in NUS. He was a victim of an organization with holds no knowledge or wisdom to conduct basic research; but political maneuvers and shows.
Despite the trumpet blowing of the local media, local graduates face difficulties in finding employment upon graduation. Employers thru experiences know that students who had the exposures in US, UK, or other open societies are more value added as an employee. Local grads need to be retrained to do simple task and usually can be incorrigible in a business environment. Of course, there are local grads who are outstanding, but that is a very thin slice of the upper tier of the distribution.
Many local grads end up joining the public service (read Government Job). Staying in a government job for more than 20 years or more appear to be a much easier path than competition head to head with other real business challenges internationally.
Give some thought to it, and the truth is simple. Look at the universities, are they formed by academics that have a critical mind, or are they already conditioned by a rigid system such as communism. If you have individuals who can only conform and stay in their conformity, you will have the same product; that is to conform and regurgitate what is instilled.
I have great suspicion about many lecturers earning their PhD thru plagiarism. This is not an accusation but to describe a common phenomenal in the academic world wide, especially in Asia. Many thesis where translated from one language to another. Many thesis were very similar and strictly not a breakthrough in the knowledge boundaries. Many theses are not thesis but the title is awarded based on the relationship between the professor and the student. (You might have heard of a young female student paying old professor money and immoral bribes to obtain a PhD in a renowned Asia university. That was already very common in 1990s). Even in the UK, there were universities that were criticized as PhD factories than a real institution. The reason behind all these is simple: greed of money and greed of fame or power.
Despite the money spent on University research funding, I see no improvement in the general technical skills elevated in Singapore. Singapore does not retain any core competencies after being a hub for hard disk manufacturing, a hub for semiconductor, and etc for over 25 years.
Anyway, Singapore employs ‘hawker centre’ style management. Whatever sells and has customer, we do it. Whatever does not sell, we ditch it. The end result is buying and selling glorified by the name High Tech.
In reality, Singapore is providing free trainings for many foreigners; give them a great opportunity to leverage their income and living standards, all at the expense of local Singaporean. The true victims will be the future generations of true Singaporean. It is very clear many children will become the servants of foreigners’ children in the near future. Those who can think, let him think.
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To anonymous
You are making assumptions based on your imagination without facts. I can tell you the intake of students are based on following criteria (or more).
1. Gender
2. Nationality
3. Race
4. Area of study
5. Demand of industry
There is a supply and demand curve, mixed with political agendas.
That is to say, a student of a certain gender is not compared equally to another student of a different gender. If the authority wants a certain student gender population distribution, an applicant with a poorer result may get in but another applicant may not.
Likewise, nationality plays a part.
The equation is complex.
A biased equation is also applied to determine the final score of a student. I have worked in an institution long enough to know this practice.
By transfer faction modification, you can see that being of local nationality, or gender, or race, may not be given the higher score in the determination of acceptance. You should have lived in Singapore long enough to realize such unequal and biased evaluation.
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Singporean,
Your comment is spot on!The fact is that all local unis will remain as 3rd class institutions until something is done to change the entire system in many aspects,such as political,economical,educational,etc.So much of trumpet blowing of the local media.
NUS vision is ‘Towards a Global Knowledge Enterprise’.Yes,they’re aspiring to be one forever in their illusions.
I’m so disgusted by the system.Once I’ve the opportunity,it’s time to withdraw my place from NUS.
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With all due respect, the above article is extremely poorly written, one can make out the authors point bust just barely. Of course with any system where there are foreign students someone from the local population will have to do without a place. Poly students are in polytechnics for a reason, they are not expected to be academic all stars. If one would take off your blinds and actually observe the situation in any of the 3 universities, you would see that they do their level best to hire Singaporean professors, a policy that I am thankful for,since some of my best professors have been Singaporean. However most Singaporean proffesors that posses the quality do not wish to work in Singapore, for a myriad of well know reasons like a poor lifestyle, lack of freedom and so on. Check the results of the 3 universities, the ones at the top usually tend to be from the PRC. If Singaporeans are not upto the mark they really shouldnt complain, if they are really good the government will send them overseas, if they are moderately good they will end up in one of the unis. University is not meant for the average polytechnic graduate.However a valid point is the extremely generous financial offer extended to foreign students. If the above posters think that foreign graduates are willing to work for less than their Singaporean counterparts, please think again. We expect to be remunerated at par or better than Singaporeans.
Yours Humbly
A Foreign Student
(Let the Flaming Begin)
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poly grads will forever be stuck with second class dip and then get conned to attend SIM or MDIS and then be stuck with second class degree…the result of not studying hard and laughing at your top express class school mates…hahaha…good luck!
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