I refer to the article by Leong Sze Hian: $500m education spending on non-citizens p.a.?
I dont disagree with the amount that he had come up with is 500m on non-citizens. Not sure how he got that figure and I don't have any statistics to rely on, hence I won't disagree.
However, he asserts that the 1000 increase in spaces is merely due to a 'convenient' addition of Unisim students into the calculation. Now I know Straits Times is shit, but that does not excuse a person from being uninformed of current events.
First and foremost, Unisim is now considered as a 'locally funded' university. Meaning students will get the same subsidies as those from NUS/NTU/SMU. Unisim however, is not the same as SIMGE which provides degrees from overseas universities. SIMGE is not included in the calculations. And yes, Unisim students will also be able to use CPF and apply for the same bursaries that the current local university students have access to. Bet you didnt know that.
Moreover, has he not seen the rise in the number of courses that the local universities are offering? Just from the past 3 years till now, NUS has included Business Analytics and Environmental Studies. NTU has included Medicine, History, Sports Science. This year NTU will also be adding Philosophy and Environmental Earth Systems as well as double majors in business and engineering majors. SUTD has just opened, literally a brand new university. I believe its intake is around 300/year as of now and will definitely increase as they move to their newly built campus in Changi, they are temporarily housed in Dover and it is understandable that they cannot increase their intakes much as of yet.
SIT will be adding three new full-time programs this year, 2 Engineering courses and an Accountancy degree. Unisim will also be adding 3 new Full-time programs, which is something new for unisim seeing that they have been only providing part-time degrees.
So with all these new courses, why is it impossible that the extra 1000 intake has been reached? One can simply take a look at the current university "cut-off" IGP and compare them to previous years to see that there is a falling trend due to an increase in intake.
Singaporean
TRS Contributor