From Straits Times 20/07/07:
"In fact, out of the 23,000 foreign students who applied for local universities, the actual number admitted was 4,218. This works out to 18 per cent of the 22,933 foreigners who had applied."
"For local students, places were offered to 14,781, or 51 per cent, of those who applied, said the letter from the MOE director of higher education, Mr Perry Lim."
From Channelnewsasia.com 20/0707:
"It has capped the number of government-subsidised foreign students in Singapore at 20 percent because it does not want schools to expand too quickly."
well, use your calculator and see:
4218 / (4218+14781) * 100% = 22.2%
so is the cap of 20% valid? the authorities are obviously trying to play with figures to mislead the public. the 20% cap should most obviously and logically be of the school cohort; the 20% should be 20% out of the foreigners who applied for the universities!
try to think, what if 100000 foreigners try to apply for our universities? are we supposed to let in 20000 foreign students? the number of locals (Singaporeans + PRs) are not increasing that alot, so if the number of locals who apply remain roughly the same, the school cohort would be made up of mostly foreigners!
to be exact, 20000 / (20000+14781) * 100% = 57.5%. that is the best scenario, cuz i assume that the number of students that can be taken in is not limited by spatial restrictions.
of course, the above figure seems ridiculous, cuz the govt is using the statistics in a wrong manner. maybe it is just an overlook by the ministry of education, or an error in the report. this error may be committed by a person less mathematicially inclined, and overlooked by the higher officials who release the report. well, give them the benefit of doubt, since we all know the public sector is full of subtle errors that sometimes prove fatal, and have to be covered up.
another point, the foreigners are subsidised by our government. wah, isn't that equivalent to the locals paying for foreign student' stint in our universities? wah, this seems very unfair, cuz those foreign students' parents do not pay taxes to our government, do not contribute to our economy, yet we Singaporeans, and PRs have to pay for their studies. indeed, it sounds very ridiculous to me.
the govt may argue that these foreign students would work in Singapore after their graduation, but how long? 3 yrs? 4 yrs? these few years of taxes definitely do not add up to the money spent on them by our government.
yet the govt may argue that these foriegn students would eventually become PRs or even citizens of Singapore. well, how many of them will? i doubt the authorities dare to release any statistics regarding this matter, cuz from what i hear from my foreign schoolmates, not many will do just that.
try to think of other countries, are countries like USA, Japan, subsidising for foreigners' studies there? no, for what i know. correct me if i am wrong. these developed nations have more experience than us in everything, including education policies. so why don't they implement similar policies that Singapore has made? well, i believe they do not think in the same naive way as our govt officials.
what to do? i can only 发牢骚 here, and tolerate the incorrect polices towards tertiary education and foreigners.
