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Education Plus
Singapore campus, and U.S. degree
KANNAL ACHUTHAN
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More foreign universities are setting up shop in Singapore as local institutions attract several South East Asian students.
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Photo: K.V. Srinivasan
Learning first hand: A representative at a fair in Chennai explains the educational choices available in Singapore.
South East Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia are emerging as education and research hubs, where universities from the U.S., France, Australia and Germany are setting up associate campuses. Singapore, especially, is going all out to woo foreign universities to either tie up with local institutions to offer courses or set up their own campuses.
Foreign universities find these joint ventures appealing as there is huge demand for these courses from Singaporean, Chinese, Indian and Nigerian students. Dhvani Anumolu, assistant manager of Singapore Education, says, “There are at least 14 foreign universities that have tied up with educational institutions in Singapore.”
The U.S. and the U.K. remain the most preferred destinations for Indian students seeking overseas education. However, many students are attracted to Singapore or Malaysia because they can get a degree from U.S. or European university while studying in a country that is culturally, linguistically and geographically closer to home.
The Association of Accredited Advisors on Overseas Education recently held a fair in Chennai. Among the 30 participants, six institutions were from Singapore. All of them had agreements with U.S., European or Australian universities. A Malaysian college associated with two Australian universities and a U.K. university also participated.
Living costs are lower in South East Asian countries compared to the U.S. or Europe. Clement Chang Soon Seng, senior education counsellor of Inti College Sarawak in Malaysia, said many parents want to give quality overseas education to more than one of their children. “This is where institutions such as ours come in,” he says.
German Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Singapore, offers niche engineering programmes that are jointly managed by Technische Universitat Munchen, Germany; Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and National University of Singapore.
Aerospace engineering and intelligent transport systems are the two new master’s prgrammes to be offered from August this year.
GIST’s managing director Markus Waechter says, “We will focus our efforts on drawing top students in science and technology from Singapore, China, India, Indonesia and Thailand.”
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