NUS/NTU foreign students: 21 or 34%?

October 2, 2015

21% foreign students

I refer to Mr Yee Jenn Jong, Non-Constituency Member of Parliament’s Question (May 14, 2013):

“To ask the Minister for Education what is the current percentage of enrolled students and admitted students in each of our local autonomous universities, Yale-NUS College, and Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine respectively who are Singaporeans, permanent residents and foreigners.

Response

1The vast majority of university places have gone to Singaporeans. In AY2012, Singaporean students comprised 79%, while International Students and Permanent Residents comprised 16% and 5% of the universities’ intake respectively.”

34% foreign students?

However, the percentage of international students is 34 and 33 per cent for NUS and NTU respectively, according to the Times Higher Education Rankings.

Presumably, these statistics were provided by the universities?

So, why are they so much higher than the 21 per cent in the Parliamentary reply?

Reciprocate trust with more transparency?

Since the people have given their trust and mandate – shouldn’t we reciprocate by being more transparent?

We should also spend more to help Singaporeans, instead of foreigners.

Leong Sze Hian

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About the Author

Leong
Leong Sze Hian has served as the president of 4 professional bodies, honorary consul of 2 countries, an alumnus of Harvard University, authored 4 books, quoted over 1500 times in the media , has been a radio talkshow host, a newspaper daily columnist, Wharton Fellow, SEACeM Fellow, columnist for theonlinecitizen and Malaysiakini, executive producer of Ilo Ilo (40 international awards), Hotel Mumbai (associate producer), invited to speak more than 200 times in about 40 countries, CIFA advisory board member, founding advisor to the Financial Planning Associations of 2 countries. He has 3 Masters, 2 Bachelors degrees and 13 professional  qualifications.