Far-eastern offerings
Why Singapore is emerging as an attractive education destination

By Vanessa rebello
The mountain has finally come to Mohammed. For generations of students, studying abroad meant a trip to the US or UK It meant adapting to an alien culture and educational system. It meant great distances from home and all that was familiar. Not any longer. In the recent years, Singapore has become the global hub for international education. Boasting of an education system with bilingual policy and a broad-based curriculum, Singapore offers quality education, closer to home. In the 2007 World University Rankings (Times Higher Education Supplement), the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) were ranked 33 and 69 respectively in the top 200 universities worldwide.
In 2003, the Singapore government launched an initiative to promote education in Singapore. With India being the fourth-largest source of international students to Singapore, it is no wonder that Singapore would make an effort to position itself before the Indian student community through education fairs. The third leg of the Singapore Education Admissions Fair took place on June 7 and 8, 2008, at the JW Marriot in Mumbai. Earlier in the week, it had been held in Delhi and Chennai. Twelve institutions participated in the including ACS (International), EASB Institute of Management, Global Indian International School, LASALLE College of the Arts, Management Development Institute of Singapore, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Nanyang Institute of Management, PSB Academy, Singapore Institute of Management, Singapore Management University, TMC Academy, and Tourism Management Institute of Singapore.

Rebecca Lim, area director — Western India, Singapore Tourism Board, spoke about the advantages of studying in Singapore; “One of the biggest advantages of studying in Singapore is the world class education that is offered. The courses offered are relevant to the pertinent industry. The courses are affordable, and Singapore is only four hours away from your homeland.”

Available to their students are student grants which cover up to 80 percent of their fees in diploma/undergraduate courses in the polytechnics and local universities. Internationals students are required to work for three years upon graduation, either in Singapore, or with a Singapore-
registered company or institute overseas.

The cost of living is also cheaper in Singapore. An international student in Singapore spends on average about S$750 to S$2,000 a month on living expenses, depending on individual lifestyle. On the downside, working your way through college is not an option in Singapore as international students are generally not allowed to engage in any form of employment during the validity of their students’ pass. Although there are exceptions to this, students must go through the Work Pass Division of the ministry of manpower to learn the details.

Chaitanya, who did his MBA from the University of Wales in Singapore, says, “I’m a very family person. I need to come back home every five months, and that would not be feasible in America. However, Singapore is much closer to home, both geographically and culturally. Once I reached Singapore, I fell in love with the city. From then onwards, there was no turning back.” With plans of coming back to India to work, he adds, “There is certainly room for improvement, but they have the will, so they shall definitely find a way.”

Some of the main streams of educations and the Universities offering them are as follows:

Engineering
Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
NTU’s College of Engineering is one of the world’s largest engineering colleges comprising of six engineering schools:

1. School of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
2. School of Civil & Environmental Engineering
3. School of Computer Engineering
4. School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
5. School of Materials Science & Engineering
6. School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

The official website of Nanyang Technological University is www.ntu.edu.sg

National University of Singapore (NUS)
The NUS faculty of Engineering has a long and well-established history. NUS comprises of eight major departments:

1. Bioengineering
2. Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
3. Civil Engineering
4. Electrical & Computer Engineering
5. Environmental Science & Engineering
6. Industrial & Systems Engineering
7. Materials Science & Engineering
8. Mechanical Engineering

The official website of National University of Singapore is www.nus.edu.sg

Management
With over 7,000 multinational corporations and 60 international organisations, Singapore offers a multitude of networking and career opportunities. NTU and NUS’s MBA programmes have been ranked among the top 100 in the world by the Financial Times MBA 2007 rankings. The Singapore Management University is scheduled to launch its inaugural full-time MBA programme in January 2009. ESSEC, INSEAD, SP Jain Institute of Management & Research and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business have all set up permanent campuses in Singapore.

Nanyang Technological University
The Nanyang Business School of NTU is currently ranked top in Singapore and ASEAN, and in the top 50 in the world by the Financial Times. Other than the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate and executive programmes, NBS also offers renowned joint-university programmes, such as the NTU - Waseda Double MBA.

National University of Singapore
The NUS Business School offers a variety of undergraduate, postgraduate and executive programmes, including joint degrees such as the UCLA-NUS Executive MBA. It also offers specialised concurrent master’s programmes.

Creativity
Digipen Institute of Technology, USA
Commencing operations in Singapore in 2008, Digipen will offer undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in 3D animation and real-time interactive simulation. Digipen Singapore will be the school’s first campus outside of the USA and the first in Singapore to offer specialised degree courses for games
development.

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA)
NAFA offers a wide range of courses, from diploma to postgraduate levels. It includes four schools of discipline —Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Fashion Studies and School of Young Talents.