The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Singapore expo a hit with Chennai students

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 01, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Singapore expo a hit with Chennai students

Special Correspondent

Island city "offers quality education in a safe, clean and crime-free environment"

JUST PERFECT: Students found all the information they wanted about study in Singapore on the first day of Singapore Education exhibition organised by the Singapore Tourism Board in Chennai on Saturday. — Photo: S. Thanthoni

CHENNAI: The undeniable attraction of a Singapore education proved a potent call for Chennai students who kept the counsellors and education providers busy during the first day of the Singapore Education exhibition organised by the Singapore Tourism Board on Saturday.

With 15 of the top notch B-schools and institutions setting up shop with a host of scholarships on offer, the students, most of them looking for world-class postgraduate education, were spoilt for choice.

Representatives of institutions such as ACS (International), AEC Business School, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Management Development Institute of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore, the Singapore Institute of Management, the Singapore Institute of Commerce/Stansfield College and even a new entrant, the University of New South Wales-Asia, were at hand to take the students through the motions of obtaining admission, securing scholarships and getting used to living life in one of the world's fastest growing educational hubs.

Avinash Vasudevan, a management degree holder, had come all the way from Villupuram, was looking "for a foreign degree that will be both affordable and of international standards."

He did not go back disappointed as he found what he was looking for at the Management Development Institute of Singapore, which has the largest population of Indian students in the island city.

There are currently more than 70,000 international students in Singapore. The STB is targeting an increase to 1,50,000 by 2015.

"Each year we strive to bring to the exhibition institutes that offer varied courses to familiarise Indian students with what Singapore can offer them. The response we have received so far has been most encouraging," said Kang Siew Kheng, regional director, South Asia, Middle East and Africa, STB.

"With an increasing number of Indian students recognising Singapore as an attractive hub for education excellence, Singapore Education will focus on further strengthening the key offerings to all Indian students planning an overseas education. This year, a new branding campaign has been launched to enable us to connect better with the Indian student, as well as decisions makers, parents and educators," Bridget Goh, the STB's area director for southern India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, said.

Chan Yoke Kai, deputy president, Development, University of New South Wales, Asia, is excited about the academic challenges that the newly set up institution would face. The Singapore campus of the UNSW, one of the foremost universities of Australia, would be the fourth university the island nation would have but the "first international comprehensive private university." Almost 70 per cent of the seats is on offer to international students.

While the university is starting out with only undergraduate courses, it would offer postgraduate courses too from 2008.

"Singapore offers the advantage of quality education, with a lower cost of living in a safe, clean and crime-free environment. For Indian students, our Singapore campus will be more accessible than our other campuses in Sydney and Canberra in Australia. The degree offered here is of comparable standards too and we are even using our Australian faculty," he says.

Seminars

The expo will also include a series of seminars by education providers on topics such as education in Singapore, employment opportunities, study in public institutions and private universities. From Chennai, the expo will move on to Kolkata and New Delhi.

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