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http://www.facebook.com/notes/baey-...foreign-students-8-mar-2012/10150626633694601
My speech at Budget Debate on Ministry of Education, Foreign Students (8 Mar 2012)
by Baey Yam Keng on Thursday, March 8, 2012 at 10:17pm ·
After completing my ‘A’ levels, I applied to study Medicine in NUS but I was not successful. At that time, I was very disappointed, and felt worse when I realized two of my classmates, an ASEAN scholar from Malaysia and another from Hong Kong, whose A level results were not as good as mine, were admitted. As I tried to console myself that NUS is distributing talents among faculties beyond Medicine and wondered if I could have done better during my interview, I could not understand why I, a Singaporean, was passed over for foreigners.
However, that also prompted me to apply for the Economic Development Board scholarship and I was fortunate that there are such government scholarships to allow Singaporeans like me to study for my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in London. On hindsight, it probably turned out better for me. And for the record, my two foreign friends have settled down in Singapore with their own medical practice and started their families here.
We know that an international student profile adds to the learning environment and helps the university move up international rankings. However, I can understand why there are sentiments and perceptions that Singaporeans are losing university places to foreigners. Of course, there should be entry requirements for each faculty, and not all applicants will make the grade, but we have probably moved too quickly in opening up the quota for foreign students before new universities like Singapore University of Technology & Design and Singapore Institute of Technology are able to meet the higher aspirations of our better educated young population.
I would like the Minister to fine-tune the scholarship scheme for foreign students and allocate more resources to help needy Singaporean students and encourage local students with deserving results. We should not turn off the tap for foreign students or stop attracting global talents via scholarships, but I hope the government could moderate the numbers.
Next, in selecting students for any scholarships, I recommend that we follow new HR recruitment practices to also look at their activities and comments in social media as another avenue to assess the applicant. However, do not just rely on Facebook. Do remember that in places like China, Facebook is banned and platforms like weibo and QQ are the platforms to look out for.
And while the foreign students are here, we should make more deliberate efforts to assimilate them better and more quickly in S’pore. I heard that some varsity halls are fast becoming enclaves for foreigners and when there is a critical mass, it is very comfortable for anyone to just socialize with their fellow countrymen. I propose we have home-stay accommodation for foreign students to live in HDB flats. I do not mean renting the entire apartment with other foreign students, but renting a room and staying with their Singaporean landlords. If there is a programme to do such matching, it would also help locals to monetize their flats with more rental income.
My speech at Budget Debate on Ministry of Education, Foreign Students (8 Mar 2012)
by Baey Yam Keng on Thursday, March 8, 2012 at 10:17pm ·
After completing my ‘A’ levels, I applied to study Medicine in NUS but I was not successful. At that time, I was very disappointed, and felt worse when I realized two of my classmates, an ASEAN scholar from Malaysia and another from Hong Kong, whose A level results were not as good as mine, were admitted. As I tried to console myself that NUS is distributing talents among faculties beyond Medicine and wondered if I could have done better during my interview, I could not understand why I, a Singaporean, was passed over for foreigners.
However, that also prompted me to apply for the Economic Development Board scholarship and I was fortunate that there are such government scholarships to allow Singaporeans like me to study for my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in London. On hindsight, it probably turned out better for me. And for the record, my two foreign friends have settled down in Singapore with their own medical practice and started their families here.
We know that an international student profile adds to the learning environment and helps the university move up international rankings. However, I can understand why there are sentiments and perceptions that Singaporeans are losing university places to foreigners. Of course, there should be entry requirements for each faculty, and not all applicants will make the grade, but we have probably moved too quickly in opening up the quota for foreign students before new universities like Singapore University of Technology & Design and Singapore Institute of Technology are able to meet the higher aspirations of our better educated young population.
I would like the Minister to fine-tune the scholarship scheme for foreign students and allocate more resources to help needy Singaporean students and encourage local students with deserving results. We should not turn off the tap for foreign students or stop attracting global talents via scholarships, but I hope the government could moderate the numbers.
Next, in selecting students for any scholarships, I recommend that we follow new HR recruitment practices to also look at their activities and comments in social media as another avenue to assess the applicant. However, do not just rely on Facebook. Do remember that in places like China, Facebook is banned and platforms like weibo and QQ are the platforms to look out for.
And while the foreign students are here, we should make more deliberate efforts to assimilate them better and more quickly in S’pore. I heard that some varsity halls are fast becoming enclaves for foreigners and when there is a critical mass, it is very comfortable for anyone to just socialize with their fellow countrymen. I propose we have home-stay accommodation for foreign students to live in HDB flats. I do not mean renting the entire apartment with other foreign students, but renting a room and staying with their Singaporean landlords. If there is a programme to do such matching, it would also help locals to monetize their flats with more rental income.
The Grassloot Por Lumpars can take in the male Ah nehs and the male Ah Tiong students..
