What I hate about the current Singapore
-
WeiHan:
How to compare?pirate:
[quote=\"WeiHan\"]I don't know whether to call it significant or not. The total value given out each year is just $1-$1.5 millions. A PSC scholarship for a three years overseas study can worth as much as $0.5 million already.
I don't care what a PSC overseas scholarship is worth. I only want to know whether these scholarships pay the Singaporean student's full tuitions fees like the Asean Scholarships, and how the total no. of such scholarships given to local students compare to the no. of Asean scholarships for university courses.
Whether these scholarships should cover some living expense is also something to think about.
Asean scholarship is for secondary school and pre-U education. The above scholarship from SUTD is for university education.
My point is that government scholarship with no bond usuallycomes with a small monetary value attached.[/quote]Then we compare how many scholarships our universities give to Singaporeans and how many they give to foreigners, and what they respectively cover lor.
Likewise, we compare how many scholarships for secondary school and pre-U education that our gov gives to Singaporeans and how many similar scholarships they give to foreigners. -
pirate:
Not only that, the CSC (Civil Service College) provides training to foreign public officials and the NTU has a Chinese mayor class MBA as well. So you reckon we should not waste money on quiet diplomacy? I mean, I'm quite sure these programmes are not available to Singaporeans.....
Then we compare how many scholarships our universities give to Singaporeans and how many they give to foreigners, and what they respectively cover lor.
Likewise, we compare how many scholarships for secondary school and pre-U education that our gov gives to Singaporeans and how many similar scholarships they give to foreigners. -
WeiHan:
How to compare?pirate:
[quote=\"WeiHan\"]I don't know whether to call it significant or not. The total value given out each year is just $1-$1.5 millions. A PSC scholarship for a three years overseas study can worth as much as $0.5 million already.
I don't care what a PSC overseas scholarship is worth. I only want to know whether these scholarships pay the Singaporean student's full tuitions fees like the Asean Scholarships, and how the total no. of such scholarships given to local students compare to the no. of Asean scholarships for university courses.
Whether these scholarships should cover some living expense is also something to think about.
Asean scholarship is for secondary school and pre-U education. The above scholarship from SUTD is for university education.
My point is that government scholarship with no bond usuallycomes with a small monetary value attached.[/quote]Yup! I never come across any equitable scholarships are giving out to our own Singaporean students for secondary school and pre-U education. Some more, they will extend the scholarship for Uni education to those who has had Asean scholarship for secondary school and pre-U education.
If I'm not wrong, the whole intention of giving out Asean Scholarship is to get bright students to study here and create a more competitive environment for our students. Also, the likelihood for Asean scholars to settle here is very high and hopefully can contribute to our society eventually. -
WeiHan:
How to compare?pirate:
[quote=\"WeiHan\"]I don't know whether to call it significant or not. The total value given out each year is just $1-$1.5 millions. A PSC scholarship for a three years overseas study can worth as much as $0.5 million already.
I don't care what a PSC overseas scholarship is worth. I only want to know whether these scholarships pay the Singaporean student's full tuitions fees like the Asean Scholarships, and how the total no. of such scholarships given to local students compare to the no. of Asean scholarships for university courses.
Whether these scholarships should cover some living expense is also something to think about.
Asean scholarship is for secondary school and pre-U education. The above scholarship from SUTD is for university education.
My point is that government scholarship with no bond usuallycomes with a small monetary value attached.[/quote]There are also ASEAN scholarships for university education.
One cannot compare the value of a scholarship for a local university education with a PSC scholarship for an overseas university education. Clearly, the value of the PSC scholarship is higher given the tuition fees charged by foreign universities and the living expenses - that's why these scholarships are not bond free and rightly so given the State's investment in these scholars.
While I don't have the data offhand, from interacting with people in the tertiary education sector and even from parents who have done some research looking for scholarships for their kids, it is clear the number of scholarships available to and given to Singaporeans by the universities far exceed those given to foreign students such as the ASEAN scholarship.
The point I make is that the number of scholarships from SUTD alone is not insignificant (I will consider insignificant if say < than 10 students per cohort are granted the scholarship). You add those scholarships offered from NTU, NUS, SMU and it means a significant number of Singapore students get their university education fully paid for including cost of student exchange in top foreign universities. There are many different types of scholarships and you will see living allowance, computer allowance, book allowance are also common benefits provided. What more can one ask for from a bond free scholarship?
I think it is just wrong to highlight one type of scholarship offered to foreigners and jump to the conclusion that it discriminates against Singporeans. If anyone surveys the availability of scholarships for university education as a A level student, you will see plenty of scholarships available to Singaporeans only. -
I think the relevant point is that if a Singapore child works hard and gets the good grades, the child will not be deprived of a university education just because the child is poor. What more can the Govt. do. Many of my friends went to Uni on bursaries as well as their grades were not good enough for scholarships but were still poor enough to get full bursaries for fees, transport and books. The message is clear, if you work hard enough to get to Uni, there is a way to actually go to Uni without worrying about the fees.
-
Just relax:
I think the relevant point is that if a Singapore child works hard and gets the good grades, the child will not be deprived of a university education just because the child is poor. What more can the Govt. do. Many of my friends went to Uni on bursaries as well as their grades were not good enough for scholarships but were still poor enough to get full bursaries for fees, transport and books. The message is clear, if you work hard enough to get to Uni, there is a way to actually go to Uni without worrying about the fees.
I think the unhappiness is always amongst the sandwiched class. Not poor enough to get bursaries, but not rich enough so univ fees are a significant burden on family finances.
The other thing is the prestige attached to the term 'scholarship' as opposed to 'bursary' and the belief (misguided or otherwise) that scholarships open doors to better careers. When some scholars from overseas underperform, it creates the impression that the gov is prepared to give scholarships to sub-par foreign students, and that the playing field is not level because Singapore students need to do better than foreign students in order to enjoy the prestige of putting 'scholarship' (rather than 'bursary' which means nothing more than one is poor) on their CVs.
Perhaps only the best foreign students should be given 'scholarships'. The rest can be given 'bursaries'. -
I think the unhappiness is always amongst the sandwiched class. Not poor enough to get bursaries, but not rich enough so univ fees are a significant burden on family finances.
True...Majority of singaporean fall under this category... -
:goodpost:
pirate:
Just relax:
I think the relevant point is that if a Singapore child works hard and gets the good grades, the child will not be deprived of a university education just because the child is poor. What more can the Govt. do. Many of my friends went to Uni on bursaries as well as their grades were not good enough for scholarships but were still poor enough to get full bursaries for fees, transport and books. The message is clear, if you work hard enough to get to Uni, there is a way to actually go to Uni without worrying about the fees.
I think the unhappiness is always amongst the sandwiched class. Not poor enough to get bursaries, but not rich enough so univ fees are a significant burden on family finances.
The other thing is the prestige attached to the term 'scholarship' as opposed to 'bursary' and the belief (misguided or otherwise) that scholarships open doors to better careers. When some scholars from overseas underperform, it creates the impression that the gov is prepared to give scholarships to sub-par foreign students, and that the playing field is not level because Singapore students need to do better than foreign students in order to enjoy the prestige of putting 'scholarship' (rather than 'bursary' which means nothing more than one is poor) on their CVs.
Perhaps only the best foreign students should be given 'scholarships'. The rest can be given 'bursaries'. -
vinegar:
It is true that most people fall in the non scholarship, non bursary category.I think the unhappiness is always amongst the sandwiched class. Not poor enough to get bursaries, but not rich enough so univ fees are a significant burden on family finances.
True...Majority of singaporean fall under this category...
However, everyone is entitled to take up tuition fee loan which finances up to 90% of the fees payable. Some of these figures may have changed, but this is my brother's experience. My brother just graduated from local uni last Dec.
His fees are approx S$9k per academic year x 4 years = S$36k. He got the tuition fee loan which covers 90% of the 9k. Because my parents are retired, he was eligible to take up another loan to cover the balance 10%. This means my parents paid NOTHING for his uni education. He was also eligible to take up a 3rd loan which paid him living expenses of S$3600 per year and also a loan to buy a laptop. All these loans are interest free during the period of university education. Now that he has graduated, he will take a job and pay back with his income.
With the above loan, my brother used it to finance his trip to Russia and Europe on 2 occasions for school CCA activities. He bought a laptop which lasted him the whole uni education.
BTW, 9k per year for university education is definitely affordable even without loans given that KSP forummers routinely spend more than $1k every month on childcare fees, tuition fees etc.
Being the only other child in the family, I was prepared to finance my brother's university education. But as it turned out, I paid NOTHING thanks to all the available loans.
So the saying that university education is unaffordable is absolutely not true. -
Musings:
yes, but must take loans. not say \"affordable\" and pay out of pocket.
Being the only other child in the family, I was prepared to finance my brother's university education. But as it turned out, I paid NOTHING thanks to all the available loans.
So the saying that university education is unaffordable is absolutely not true.
we as society don't like the idea of loans even for uni education altho it is common overseas.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better š
Register Login