Govt’s share of ‘costs per university student’ down from 93.3% to 62.5%?

Photo: fivestarsandamoon.comPhoto: fivestarsandamoon.com

Why do we keep decreasing the government’s share of the costs per university student?

My regular insider ES sent me the following very interesting information from 1985:-

In 1984/85 – the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) tuition fee for the Science Course was only $1,000 or just 6.7 per cent of the average recurrent costs of $14,827 per student.

Does this mean that the government’s share of the average recurrent costs, was 93.3 per cent (100 – 6.7%)?

For Medicine – the tuition fee was only $1,100 against the average recurrent costs of $43,803 – i.e. the government’s share of the average recurrent costs, was 97.5 per cent.

According to NUS’s web site – the tuition fee for normal courses and Medicine will increase to $8,200 and  $28,400 respectively, this year, and the government Recurrent Expenditure on Education per Student for University was $21,853 in 2017.

So, does it mean that the government’s share of the average recurrent costs is now 62.5 per cent ($8,200 divided by $21,853)?

Why has the government’s share of the average recurrent costs decreased from 93.3 per cent in 1984 to 62.5 per cent now?

Against this – the overall Budget surplus was $9.6 and $12 billion for FY2017 and FY2016, respectively.

We also had about $30 and $200 billion of reported Budget surpluses and Cash Budget surpluses, in the last decade or so.

Leong Sze Hian

 

 

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.