University places = F(protectionism, citizenship, taxes)?

Great debate on the issue of "how we should allocate our university places." I didn't write on it first-time round because I didn't think it was much of an issue to be debated on. How wrong could I get.

If people understand what a debate is about, they will realize that there is hardly a "correct" and "wrong" stand. Too very often in our lives, there are the so-called grey areas. I hope that readers exercise caution in reading, then commenting. It is easy to gripe about the imperfections in any system, simply because no system is perfect! But it is more difficult to come up with a solution that can actually work better, and has less/minor side-effects! But you all already know that.

Before I start let me explain the title of this post. So far that I've seen in the blogs and their respective comments, these few issues have cropped up together with this discussion on "university places", so I somehow thought that it would be interesting that university places could actually be a function of all the above-mentioned! What you guys think?

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I was quite taken aback that Mr Wang - whom I highly respect for his (usually) rather incisive and balanced views - took an absolute stand on this issue. To the extent I thought he was actually xenophobic. I was wondering why I thought that way (apparently my subconscious mind works faster than my conscious one), but when I re-read the article I finally realized.

"Heh. Actually there's nothing surprising about it. Look at our property market. Look at our residential rental rates. Look at the crowds on our MRT trains and in our food courts. Look at the endless jam on the CTE.

And then look at our university situation.

See the pattern? Due to a massive intake of foreigners in recent years, our resident population has exploded. We've become the 2nd most crowded country in the world. And our current infrastructure just can't cope."

Now, I dunno what happened along the way, but although I am quite certain that the intake of foreigners may have something to do with the problems mentioned (there is indeed a logical connection), I wouldn't connect them in the manner that Mr Wang has done. If connections were so easily made, then academics would be out of work.

"The basic point still remains. It is the responsibility of the government to provide adequate education opportunities for its citizens."

Yes Mr Wang. But to what level are we talking about? The state is providing for education up till secondary level. We can't even guarantee places at JC level, and now you're talking about university? What is adequate? Enough for one is not enough for another. ($1million a year is enough for many of us, but yet not enough for... you know, others.) It is easy to SAY things, but to implement, you must have the means, and that directly translates to money, and yes, taxes.


Of course, I foresee the next point coming: "Then don't give out so many foreign scholarships lah!" Correct, I agree on this point. I even mentioned in one of my previous comments on some blog that some of the money that we've been giving out to foreign scholars to make Singapore more "cosmopolitan" could be better spent on Singaporeans to give them an overseas exchange experience. This, as opposed to giving out whole scholarships to some Singaporeans, because the same amount of money could be better spent to benefit a larger group of Singaporeans. I also argued that the cosmopolitan-ity of a country would not be greatly enhanced just by introducing a group of foreigners into the country because people will tend to stick in their social circles (of course not true for hall residences where people get to mix around more freely!) and not mix around too much.


From the many comments on Mr Wang's blog, I can see that a lot of these people do not have foreign friends, and it is quite sad. Not just because you cannot be more "cosmopolitan", but also because you will tend to have warped views of yourself, your country and the world as a whole. I am against excessive spending OUR money on foreigners, of course, but the thing is, I have seen firsthand, how a foreign friend of mine (American) came here, studied for a year, fell in love with the place, fell in love here too (albeit not with a local), went home to complete his degree and vowed to come back here to be a PR (with a possible view of taking up citizenship) - he already has a return ticket to Singapore! Looking at the big picture, would you say the money spent on him - I dunno how much - is not worth it? He is probably going back to Michigan and saying a lot of good words about Singapore - of course he is not blindly pro-Singapore - and encourage more tourists to come here in the process. Word-of-mouth is growing in importance in this age, and I believe it's more powerful than any advertisement. In this sense, the scholarships/bursaries given out might be more effective than the STB advertisements being screened in various countries. (Now of course if you're going to be a total ass and say that we DON'T NEED foreigners, then sorry, there is no point for argument anymore. We're on two different wavelengths already.)


In case people start accusing me of being elitist/ uncaring/ not knowing what being rejected from university means, I have to categorically state that my bro got 4As, 1D and 1M (for S papers), A1 for both GP and Project Work and got rejected from the Medicine faculty too. His CCA record is impeccable too, having had MP attachment (only offered to the best students in his JC) and various Community Involvement projects. I shall not elaborate further on his achievements (I'm not here to boast!) but needless to say, my brother has qualifications that far surpass any of those mentioned in the papers. Yet as we wonder why he did not gain acceptance into Medicine, my family and I do not go around accusing the government of not doing its part. My mum's considering selling some property - not sure if it's the flat we're staying in - to let my brother study overseas. Thing is, there is always going to be competition all round, and if you get rejected from somewhere, it is fair to say that you're going to have choices elsewhere. There ARE second rate/less established universities in Singapore, besides the 3 main ones, and well, if I state those university names, I run the risk of offending YET another group of people (hint: read the comments in Mr Wang's blog for clues.)

In fact, as pointed out somewhere, the whole idea of setting up second-rate universities opens up a can of worms. It is recognizable that competition is indeed quite the extreme in Singapore, and getting this second rate degree might not be worth its salt (or money). Then, ah yes, when you graduate after 3 or 4 years, these very people are going to COMPLAIN again (oh why not?) that now that they have degrees, they SHOULD be employed and why are they not? Look at Taiwan, they're bursting with graduates from all over the place, but a significant percentage of them are unemployed. So is this how we want our graduates to turn out? Even being the best is not enough? Then what? Masters, PhD, post-doc? Then everyone in Singapore will now want a PhD and they're going to demand tha tthe government provide enough places for everyone?

Can of worms indeed. Huge.

The suggestion of setting up another university JUST to cater to the Dragon Year babies is NOT economically viable. Are you going to tell me, you're setting up an multi million-dollar (probably upwards of $50million?) institution just to cater to one batch of students, and after they graduate, the university falls into disuse until 8 years later (assuming 4 year courses)? I hope the person who said that has some intellect left to admit that he was a moron.

The author believes that we should not always turn to the government for help, as I have said again and again. Since when has not getting a place in university turned into a thing of national concern? Sure, and the next time you lost your wallet, you'd blame the government for not making the place safer?! What next, pray tell. Sure, by all means, vocalize your thoughts, but before that, sit down and reexamine yourself, and those thoughts - are they reasonable or not?

Having said that, it is my belief that our government should not have gone out on such an aggressive drive to hunt foreigners to come to our land (which is quite frankly, bursting at its seams already - like Mr Wang said.) It should be a gradual thing so we can adjust at the various stages. But I'm not sure, it could be due to the greying population issue.

I end this post urging readers and bloggers alike to try to get the big picture of the situation (well, I'm not saying I did get the WHOLE picture, so correct me where I erred) before actually airing your thoughts. Of course it all makes for good verbal discourse when ideas get thrashed out in the online world like this.

G'day to all!


Related blogs and news:

Mr Wang: Should Citizens Get Priority for University Admission
Molly Meek: University Places: Can we think beyond the universities?
Singapore Angle: Much ado about university admissions
Aaron Ng: Universities should give Singaporeans priority?
Bart JP: Protection for Singaporeans?
Updated
ST Forum: S'poreans have priority in university admission - MOE clarifies
ST Forum: Unsuccessful students may yet excel in life