Miss Catherine Jaevans offers her personal opinions on the current state of affairs concerning foreign scholarship policy in Singapore:
Foreign Scholarship Policy: Fairness? Or Not?
However, lack of substance to be objective for a firm debate. If it has to be a good debate on how policies of attracting foreign intakes into the university have effect on the local students, then it should be more objective on both sides of the coins. However I found lack of facts and relevance in the blog to show such information.
Allow me to put in my 2 cents worth, I'm not saying the blogger is wrong, I'm just stating that if the discussion wants to carry more weight, more facts and research should be revealed. At the moment, it seems kinda premature and contain more self expression than facts.
blogger said:
It is undeniable that the implementation of foreign scholarship policies is one of the many affecting factors that resulted in the decline of uptake of university education among the locals.
How undeniable ? What exactly are the disadvantages that locals have suffered due to the large number of foreign intakes ? What ratio of foreigners to locals intake are we talking about ? Can we have a demographic of locals versus foreigners across all the major local universities based on faculties. We must understand, some faculties have more foreigners while some comprise of mainly locals. It's only undeniable when facts are laid one. A sweeping statement of "undeniable" makes no relevances and basically just encourage general consensus on guts feelings.
blogger said:
As practical as it may sound, local born and bred Singaporeans are definitely getting the short end of the stick in this area.
Another sweeping statement, so when locals are getting the short end of the stick, what are things we lose out to the foreigners ? Again lack off facts in the claim made.
blogger said:
To the government, expanding the talent pool is crucial for our ever-growing economy- and that is probably one of the reasons why the "importation" of foreign students through scholarship policies are essential.
However, with so many opportunities extended to foreign students, are our local Singaporeans receiving equal opportunities as well?
Now, that is the part when an imbalance strikes.
Yet another sweeping statement.
blogger said:
To some, a foreign scholarship is only a "bridge" or milestone for the foreigners to enjoy their education here in Singapore.
Granted that there is a string attached - that is, to fulfill a 3-year bond after their education, it is a total different story altogether when it comes to settling down.
So what does this statement indicate ? No explanation nor any conclusion ? What different story are we talking about compared to foreigners settling down or not.
blogger said:
Let's face the reality - There are many foreigners who would kill for a scholarship opportunity in Singapore.
But will they really fight for a place here after their education?
A claimed made on no supporting evidence. Guts feelings, lack of substance.
blogger said:
Ah, that's some food for thought.
When it comes to foreigners, there is the existence of unexplained inferiority in us.
Don't get me wrong - I am just stating from my own personal experience.
You are not wrong. "The Ang Moh are always better" Simple statement made across all industries. Even the "Ang Moh" perspire taste sweeter. So who wanted to believe in this claim ? Did the "Ang Moh" force us to believe in it, or we decided to believe in it ?
blogger said:
Many top students are mainly from other countries (I am not implying that there are no local top students), but the feeling of being inferior is just... ...inevitable.
Too much feeling, lets have some good numbers to see if the claim is true.
blogger said:
I strongly believe money is an affecting factor when it comes to pursuing an education, too. There is no doubt that many locals are struggling in terms of financial means to pursue an education, and having foreign scholarship policies are not helping in any way.
From an online report I read while doing my research, the government revealed in Parliament that at least 2,000 scholarships worth S$36 million were awarded each year to overseas students.
Fairness? Or not?
Come to think of it, it is not a small amount.
Total lack of facts. Okay the research shows 2000 scholarships worth SGD36mil are invested into foreigners. Can we also look at the other side of the level, how much are spent on locals ? Also 36mil or 1 billion ? I mean what purpose does it serve to just show one side of the scale without showing the other ? For all you know, this number may very well be just 10% of the amount spent on whole, not that I know of, but the article seems to insist it's an unreasonable amount without putting up the balance.
Asking for fairness seems highly premature at this point. There is no room for the discussion of fairness, just pure bias at its best.
blogger said:
I do not deny that these policies are causing additional pressure on our local students (as if results are already not stressful enough!), whom are as passionate in their studies, too.
But well, there are always two sides to a coin.
Have we considered the stress are self-inflicted ? Are external stress always worse for us ?
blogger said:
The rapid intake of foreign students may also be a cause for the drop in rankings of Singapore's two top universities - as there are many who do not fare that well as far as English language is concerned.
Facts or Fallacy ? Where is the study to make such a claim ?
blogger said:
Well, we lose some and we gain some.
We shouldn't let foreign scholarship policies stand in our way of education success, though.
Granted that our local students may have to go the extra mile just to get there, but I strongly believe we can still carve our own success stories - given the equal opportunity and time.
Nothing much to comment. Seems none of the above points made any hard impression on why the article need to be treated seriously.
My 2 cents worth towards the topic.
Lets us look at the bigger picture with regards to the tertiary educational system in Singapore. I don't claimed to be right research person on this social issue. However I think we need to be objective here, Singapore is not just competing against foreigners coming into Singapore or studying in Singapore. Singapore talents are competing against the rest of the world.
Lets just assume Singapore is not taking in any foreigners in, where do you think they will go ? Nowhere else ? Is that what you want to believe, or are there facts to show Singapore is the only place they can go to further their studies. Suppose they have elsewhere to go, then all that we will find is, out of all these foreigners, those talents ones will be anywhere else but unlikely to be in Singapore.
The fact that they exist, means instead of some of them being allies to Singapore talent pool, they will most likely be working against Singapore competing with the local talents. So what number are we talking about here ?
But we know today we have foreign talents willing to go into battle with Singapore. Some of them are married here, some of them are PR here, some have converted as citizens. If Singapore has not gone into this policy, would you still think there will be such talents in Singapore ?
Now the next question to discuss is having more foreign talents staying with Singapore, yet locals students have more stress, more unfairness, and less chances. Which is more beneficial to the whole of Singapore ? From a local perspective, obviously why should I enjoy less to someone whom is not pledge towards Singapore ? I'm a local myself, I also love to believe that. But to be objective is to not just be biased here.
First, are all stresses bad ? 10 years ago, I was a NUS CS student graduated with an honours degree. During those times, we already have this policy running and in my computing cohort, I see foreigners all over the places ranging from Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Malaysian and a few more other countries of lesser numbers.
It's probably hard to tell if it's more stressful ? I wonder how students come to think of it. I can't even indifferent the stress we are under is because competing against foreigners or competing against your own local peers. As far as the rest of the students around me is concern, they are all no difference. It's not like you have 2 different perspective that you can measure against which is better.
But one thing I know is I love competition and healthy forms of competition actually is beneficial to me and my peers. Please be mindful, Singapore is competing against the rest of the world. We are not as big as China where we can close the door and play happily with one and other. So whatever skill set you learn is to challenge against the rest whom some are more advance and at better situation than Singapore. Keep this in mind, don't fall into the pitfall thinking just because you won against your own peers and therefore you are better. You are probably just the frog in the well.
I love to compete against the foreigners. One thing is the pride of being a Singaporean, the other is you are competing with foreign talents and this is as real as it can get in the educational system. When you compete with the foreigners, you exactly know where your deficiencies are and how they are more superior ? That's when you start to improve yourself on areas you have not considered. Singapore while a multi culture national live with its own set of rules, people from other parts of the world play a different set of rules. But to say Singapore can be competitive against the rest of the world, is to say we need to play with everybody rules.
When you are standing on your homeland and yet you can't compete against others and not willing to do so, then we are not the rightful owner to this land. The fact that only the fittest survive works everywhere. The fact that Singapore is small and does not own any natural resources except our talents is a undeniable fact. Accept this fact and we may flourish. Deny this fact and we all die. The only way we can continue to survive as a Nation is to get the necessary respect the admiration from others, not only today but also tomorrow. How good is tomorrow is how good our students can fight. If you are not willing to fight, then be prepared to die.
The ranking of our universities are determined by how good our students fair to the rest of the universities. If we are really concern about how good we are, then be concern with your own grades. How can you learn more and be stronger and earn the grades that go fitting with you, not how good our universities can be by keeping foreigners out.
I strongly urge students with such mentally to have a broader insight into the world you are living in, don't be complacent thinking that less competition is better for you. It definitely isn't. Don't keep on whining that you are not able to be better than the foreigners, it really bring shame to ourselves for whining that there is foul play involved, when all it takes is a more competitive mindset to be instilled into ourselves.
When I keep on hearing these kind of sentiments, I would something wonder if Singaporean students are made of tofu. We should have the 遇强则强(be stronger against a strong opponent) spirit. That's how we can maintain to the stronger ones against others. Setting up a barrier don't make Singapore stronger. It wouldn't give you a more stable future since the rest of the world are getting better each day. The fact that there are stronger opponents outside of Singapore doesn't make Singapore safer. We can't afford to lock ourselves in for 50 years and still standing. Think wisely.
