NTU to set up more campuses…but not in Singapore

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http://www.straitstimesreview.com/20...-in-singapore/

NTU to set up more campuses…but not in Singapore

admin / 12 hours ago May 4, 2015









The Nanyang Technological University will be setting up more campuses but not in Singapore. By the end of 2015, a satellite campus will be set up in London in an attempt to expand its research and teaching capabilities with UK universities. The Singapore Government funded university will also build more campuses in US San Francisco, US Chicago, Sweden Stockholm and China Shanghai.
According to NTU’s latest annual report of 2014, the university received S$799 million of government grants in total last year and its financial position even boasted a 35% increase in income exceeding S$200 million for the year of 2014. With such favorable finances, it is no surprise NTU is making moves to expand its local campus.

However, it seems the government funded university has misplaced its priority. The Singaporean pioneer generation who had contributed to the formation NTU had expected their future generations and Singaporeans to have a good institution to be educated in.

To be fair, international collaborations and exposure is good for the school’s international standing but who is NTU being the better university for? It begets the question: is the local university created to serve itself or Singaporeans? Given the number of rejected Singaporean applicants every year and the near-epidemic shortage of university places in Singapore, shouldn’t NTU be looking inward after its own people first?

It is terrible to know that at least $200 million is spent on scholarships for foreign students in our local universities, and here we are, building campuses for overseas students using Singaporean taxes. If the NTU likes to do as it wish, it should grow its own backbone and stop receiving S$799 million of grants from our taxes every year. The money is better off building a new local university for Singaporean students who have no choice but to shoulder hefty college debt enrolling in international universities.


May 4, 2015 in Opinion.


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