World-class education with Asian values
Photo: By Special Arrangement
BUDDING LEADER: Taiyabi Ahmad Shadab, a policy analyst, was the first foreigner to head the student union at Nanyang Technological University.
This is the closest to having the best of both worlds: a sleek, cosmopolitan, tech-governed city with a strong sense of community and at-homeness, with a learning infrastructure that seamlessly blends both traits.
In Singapore, one does not have to look hard to see how education in the future would look like: affordable, modern, skills-rich and value-laden — everything an Indian student could possibly ask for.
If you are an Indian student looking to stay close home and yet connect with the world, Singapore is the best bet. Here you can get a British or American degree at a fraction of the cost of the home countries and yet not lose out on the benefits of world-class education.
Singapore's USP for becoming one of the fastest developing educational hubs in the world: a safe, modern city with an affordable lifestyle and governed by a system of strict laws. Not that Singapore was not a hit with Indian students even earlier. For well over two decades, they have been heading there to enrol in one the two main universities — the National University of Singapore or the Nanyang Technological University — or the Singapore Management University or one of the junior colleges, thanks to the host of scholarships available.
Says Asha Sandeep, alumni of the Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS), one of the leading private B-schools: "My dream of pursuing a management degree at the U.K fell through because of the high costs. That was when I stumbled upon MDIS and the rest, as they say, is a happily-ever-after story."
R. Theyvendran, secretary-general, MDIS, says most Indian students at the institute are toppers, thanks to their fluency in English.
Yet, Indian students are only a part of the success story of Singapore Education (the Singapore Tourism Board's branding initiative). There are an estimated 70,000 international students studying in Singapore at present, with Chinese, Indians, Malaysians, Indonesians and Vietnamese topping the list. Students also come from South Korea, the Maldives, Madagascar, Nigeria, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Kazhakastan, not to speak of Europeans, Americans and Australians, who opt for top-branded business schools such as Insead and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
The island nation is now targeting 1,50,000 students by 2015. The incentives are lesser red tape, easier student visa rules, better student hostels and a unique fee protection scheme under which foreign students in private schools are not compromised if the institution shuts shop.
Life, post-campus, sounds equally promising: government-funded institutions make it mandatory for foreign students to stay and work in Singapore for three years after graduation, a provision which ensures that when a student leaves Singapore, he/she has a degree plus job experience in hand. Banking, manufacturing, IT and telecom firms are the largest such recruiters.
The case of 24-year-old Lucknow-born Taiyabi Ahmad Shadab is a classic illustration: the Indian computer engineering graduate, who is now a policy analyst with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, was the first foreigner to head the 17,000-strong student union at Nanyang Technological University.
This year on, two new foreign universities are also setting up Singapore campuses: the University of Las Vegas and the University of New South Wales. "Singapore is promoting such initiatives, especially as world-class education providers now recognise our potential as an education hub," says Bridget Goh, STB's area director for southern India, Sri Lanka and Maldives.
Added attractions for Indian students are the exclusive scholarships available: the two-year SIA Youth Scholarships and the four-year A* Star India Youth Scholarships (http://www.moe.gov.sg/corporate/students_scholarships.htm) as also the SIA-NOL Undergraduate Scholarships and the PSB Academy's Engineering Undergraduate Scholarships.
VANI DORAISAMY
Education in Singapore
