Singapore registers success in wooing world's students
Singapore has already passed the halfway mark in its quest to become a "Global Schoolhouse" with 150,000 international students by 2015.
Last year it hosted nearly 80,000 foreign students, said Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran at the inaugural Singapore Education Awards ceremony on Friday night. The number of foreign students increased 11.6 per cent over the previous year and 46 per cent over 2003. While these students hail from more than 120 nations, Chinese students, a growing force worldwide, form the majority and have overtaken Malaysians and Indonesians, traditionally the largest foreign student groups here. The industry's contribution to gross domestic product doubled from 1.9 per cent, or three billion Singapore dollars (Bt69 billion), in 2002 to 3.8 per cent, or about S$8 billion, today. The aim is to increase this to about 5 per cent by 2015. The government launched the "Singapore as the Global Schoolhouse" road map in 2002, when an economic review committee recommended that the republic ride on a predicted surge in demand for international higher education. Singapore could tap its English-speaking advantage and high educational standards, the panel noted. Iswaran said the latest figures showed that the government's efforts to woo foreign students had started to "bear fruit". He said: "Singapore is a choice location for education for many students and parents from overseas. "They cite our cosmopolitan character, global connectivity, safe and friendly environment, bilingual society and quality education offerings as key factors." Apart from Singapore's excellent public education system, the private education sector has grown, with the Economic Development Board inviting marquee names to set up campuses here. About 20 foreign institutions, from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts to Insead, have since accepted the invitation. Efforts to spread the name of Singapore education have also intensified, with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) mounting road shows in more than 30 regional cities in the last two years. It has also set up Singapore education service centres locally and in Jakarta, with plans to open in places like Chennai in India or Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
Ho Ai Li The Straits Times Asia News Network Singapore
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