Singapore: The global schoolhouse

 By Sheila Narayanan

TAKE a look around any campus in Singapore, private or public, and chances are you will see a student from India - or 10.

Singapore is becoming an increasingly popular destination for Indian students seeking an undergraduate or post-graduate degree.

According to the STB there are 86,000 foreign students in Singapore with most of them from China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Vietnam.

Most of the students head for the three Singapore universities or choose the growing number of private education organisations (PEO).

The National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Singapore Management University (SMU) told tabla! that 20 per cent of the undergraduate population are made up of foreign students.

Due to a Ministry of Education regulation, they can't give a breakdown of the number of students by race and nationality.

The SMU spokesman told tabla! that Indian students make up one of the largest overseas student contingents on campus.

According to a report in a local magazine, there are more than 450 Indian students in SMU, most of them in the Bachelor of Business Management programmes.

Besides the three universities, Indian students are flocking to PEOs like the 52-year-old Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) which has over 200 Indian students on its campus.

The MDIS spokesman said there has been a surge in students from the subcontinent over the last five years.

"Most of the students come from middle and upper-middle class income families, aged between 18 and 30. Their parents are professionals or businessmen or women who travel to Singapore."

The number of PEOs in Singapore has also increased in the last 20 years.

In 2007, there were 1,200 PEOs compared to only 150 in 1987. More foreign universities have also built their off-shore campuses here, like SP Jain Center of Management.

Its Singapore campus in Hyderabad Road is the first Indian international institute to be granted university status in Singapore.

There are 500 students at the campus - most of them Indian - in its Global Masters in Business Administration and Executive Masters in Business Administration courses.

Organisations like the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) - which has about 100 Indian students - has also developed partnerships with foreign universities like the University of London to offer degrees in Singapore.

SIM's chief executive officer Mr Lee Kwok Cheong told The Business Times that he does not foresee the education market saturating.

"The demand for higher education, for many years to come, will exceed the supply. If you have quality players in the market, we can have many more good students coming from around the region," he said.