8 Junior Colleges are Merging? Rumors or Reality?
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floppy:
No leh. We should not aim for any arbitrary percentage or cap. We should aim for educating every Singaporean to his or her fullest potential.
Like that huh.
Then Singaporeans must be very high standard lor. We should aim for 60%-70% graduates like Taiwan. -
mum_sugoku:
If one's from 北大 or 清华，one will always be able to find a job anywhere.
Of cos (all) our universities must maintain acceptable standard lah.. and not just some wild chicken university..
It's those from 野鸡大学 who worry most about 毕业等于失业!! -
floppy:
mum_sugoku:
A well written letter published in yesterday's ST Forum:
http://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-in-print/limiting-opportunities-in-higher-education-not-the-way-to-go
[quote]......Encouraging more Singaporeans to pursue a university education is ultimately the key to ensuring that we can have a foot in the door in an increasingly knowledge- and innovation-based economy......![](\"https://s12.postimg.org/odswqgtm5/IMG_3407.jpg\")
https://s12.postimg.org/odswqgtm5/IMG_3407.jpg\">[/quote]You mean our government is calling our next generation to develop deep skills like flipping McDonald's burgers? Don't laugh, during the 2000 Internet boom, many startup founders survive on their burger flipping skills while waiting for their big break.
That lead me to my next point, a Software Engineer can flip burgers while awaiting his big break but a highly skilled burger flipper cannot turn into a Software Engineer overnight. -
Flip burger or prata?
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lee_yl:
oh yes, those 2 universities are like harvard and oxford. very powerful degrees.
If one's from 北大 or 清华，one will always be able to find a job anywhere.mum_sugoku:
Of cos (all) our universities must maintain acceptable standard lah.. and not just some wild chicken university..
and I certainly agree with pirate, We should aim for educating every Singaporean to his or her fullest potential...singapore govt must ensure it will always be Singaporean FIRST. -
floppy:
Why nobody wants to mention the main reason why Taiwan has such a high graduate unemployment rate is that 75% of Taiwan's graduates are from 野鸡大学.
Like that huh.
Then Singaporeans must be very high standard lor. We should aim for 60%-70% graduates like Taiwan.
Just wondering aloud, if our government arbitrarily allows only 30-40% of each cohort to receive a degree from local public universities, the rest will just flock to private universities, if left unchecked, will we one day end up like Taiwan? -
ngl2010:
A hypothetical question with no easy answer. I can only draw on the example of Finland, one country with high cohort participation rate for graduates, albeit mainly from public universities, where the graduate unemployment rate is low.
I doubt if more than 75% are studying in public universities then the unemployment rate in Taiwan will be lower. Another case of \"all universities are good universities but some are better than others\" may happen.lee_yl:
To look at Taiwan and conclude that an over abundance of graduates may lead to under-employment and associated social issues may be over-simplistic.
Taiwan's higher education landscape is pretty unique; for a total population of 23 mil (4 times that of Singapore), it has some 163 universities (more than 20 times that of Singapore) and 70% of each cohort can expect to be a graduate. Interestingly, among the undergraduates, more than 75% are studying in private universities and apparently, this group suffered the most in terms of higher unemployment.
The pertinent lesson is that given Asians' yearning for learning, should there be insufficient places in public universities, that provide the required intellectual rigour, people will flock to private institutions where quality is less assured and therein lies the risk.
Thus, by drawing the wrong lesson from Taiwan's experience, and consciously capping at 30-40% the cohort participation rate in local public universities, would we end up creating a pool of graduates whose training and skills are mismatched to the industry's needs? -
some universities in US and Canada even provide almost free tuition fees just to fill up.
these graduates come back to singapore with degrees which may not be recognized.
the crucial thing now is the number of FTs here.
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