Breakdown of Annual Expenditures of Autonomous Universities

Mr Yee Jenn Jong asked the Minister for Education since 2000 (a) what are the respective annual expenditures in dollar amounts on (i) instruction, including salaries for faculty and other teaching staff; (ii) student services, including student support, activities, and job placement; (iii) financial assistance to students; (iv) research, including equipment, space, salaries for non-teaching research staff and research support staff; (v) administration; (vi) capital investment, facility maintenance and leases, for our universities; and (b) for each group (i) what is the breakdown as a percentage of the total budget for autonomous universities and per university; and (ii) what is the dollar amount per university student and as a percentage of spending per university student.

Mr Heng Swee Keat: In FY2006, expenditure on manpower was $1.1 billion, and other operating expenditure was $0.8 billion. The corresponding figures in FY2013 were $2.0 billion, and $1.5 billion respectively. These figures are for the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Singapore Management University (SMU), which were the only three universities that turned autonomous in FY2006.