FOREIGN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

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FOREIGN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS: 2.

Assoc. Prof. Ong Soh Khim asked the Minister for Education with regard to foreign undergraduate students who are subsidised with a tuition fee grant of $12,830 per year and who make up about 20% of our universities' enrolment, (a) how many of these students are from our lower-income neighbouring countries; and (b) how many have since returned to their home countries after finishing their 3-year service bonds in Singapore.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: Mr Speaker, Sir, the majority of foreign undergraduates who receive tuition grant subsidies from the Government are from ASEAN, China and India.

We do not track those who have left after serving their tuition grant bonds, in other words, after serving out the three-year period of working in Singapore. But more than 60% of those who were admitted to our universities between 1996 and 1999 - I stop at 1999 simply because those admitted subsequently are either still studying or at a very early stage of serving their tuition grant bond - more than 60% of those who were admitted to our universities between 1996 and 1999 have become Permanent Residents or Singapore citizens since graduating. And, indeed, in the more recent of those years, the figure has been even higher.

Mr Steve Chia Kiah Hong (Non-Constituency Member): Sir, of those students who are from China and all the other lower income countries coming to Singapore, how many could have afforded

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to pay or even be willing to pay a higher tuition fee that they are currently paying?

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: I do not know the answer. We have not looked in detail at the income background of the student. I suspect some would have been able to pay more, and that is one of the reasons why we are reviewing this matter to see whether we should have differentiated fees for different types of foreign students. It is a complex matter. I do not think we want to go the way of Australia which has two classes of students, those who pay higher fees coming in on a less meritorious basis, in other words, they have low admission requirements for students who pay higher fees. I think the universities must, above everything else, maintain high quality and transparency of admission requirements. How much fees you charge and how much financial assistance you provide are the financial strategies of the universities to make sure that they remain competitive as a university and that good talents, local and foreign, are able to gain admission without having to worry about being unable to afford it.

Assoc. Prof. Ong Soh Khim: As the Minister has said, more than 60% has since become PRs and Singapore citizens, so this has actually shown that the three-year service bond is a non-issue since they are more than happy to stay behind. My next question is, with the setting up of a fourth university, or even the possibility of a fifth university, and they will be charging fees similar to the campus back home, how would the Ministry and the universities try to compete with the fourth, or even the fifth, university to get these affordable students to pay full fees coming into NUS and NTU?

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: First, I would not conclude that because more than 60% have become Permanent Residents or Singapore citizens, the three-

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year bond is irrelevant. In fact, I think that studying here and then staying on to work here might in fact help more students decide to become Permanent Residents. And I should add that those who do not decide to stay on here, it is not a loss to Singapore. When they go back to their home countries, they remain part of a network with Singapore, and they will remember their years in Singapore with fondness. So it is not as if we are trying to achieve a 100% retention rate as such.

Yes, with the fourth university coming in - we have not decided on a fifth - it will change the landscape. It offers the universities an opportunity to rethink their fee strategies. They have to be competitive vis-a-vis both additional local universities as well as the foreign universities that they are already competing with.