Hi Gilbert,
I saw your post: “Only One Singaporean PhD in NUS Economics Faculty” on TRE (and also chanced upon your blog) and I see that you feel strongly about this. However, I don’t think you quite get to the root of the problem. I hope you’ll allow me to explain my own point of view.
PhD studies in certain disciplines in most universities are not like undergraduate studies etc, where you need to pay fees.
For most science disciplines (I’d wager Economics ranks there as well), you get funding from the Universities. In other words, they pay the tuition fees, as well as pay you an allowance, in return for the PhD student teaching the undergraduates (capped at certain number of hours a week). If the PhD student is exceptional, then they do not need to teach, but still get the same benefits. This is the system used in most countries – and also why sometimes you can have crappy supervisors in undergraduate courses.
The only instance where a PhD student needs to pay tuition fees if he/she does not want to teach (and is not exceptional enough to get a fellowship), does not perform up to satisfactory academic OR teaching standards, or is doing studies in certain fields – eg History, etc.
I understand you also have posted:
Many Singaporeans have friends or relative who failed miserably in our school system, either dropping out or ending up in NT. It is not uncommon for them to get first class honor or double degree if their parents manage to send them overseas. Many Singaporean who ended up in medical or law schools overseas do not even qualify to enter JC. Many of these ex-losers are now extremely successful. Many of these students got advance degree or even PHDs because their host countries do not discriminate them unlike their own country – Singapore.
True! I myself did badly in secondary school and JC, and was lucky enough to have parents who could afford to send me overseas for undergraduate studies. But PhDs are different. Let me explain.
Most of the time, if you are accepted into the university, you do not have to pay school fees, and you even get an allowance. When I applied for my PhD in the US, I had several offers, which ranged from paying $16, 000 USD – $24,000 USD per year until I completed my PhD. Similar offers are also given in the UK, but only for the reputable universities.
Given an opportunity to travel overseas (with quite a substantial allowance – I doubt NUS / NTU even give that equivalent in SGD), and an opportunity not to go back for reservist, why would Singaporeans want to do a PhD in NUS?
I would thus suggest that instead of campaigning for more Singaporean students in NUS to do an Economics PhD (or otherwise), you might want to campaign to make local universities MORE attractive for Singaporeans to do their PhD there. Otherwise, so what if NUS adopts a policy to admit in a certain number of Singaporeans, when overseas Universities are more attractive?
My impression is: A Singaporean student can apply for NUS to do a PhD, as well as Universities in other countries. If he gets accepted by other Universities, very good. If he gets accepted by NUS only, he goes there, and you would be happy (I guess you would want more Singaporeans in NUS). If he gets rejected by all of them, then he’s obviously not good enough to do a PhD, and NUS should not accept him, regardless of how many FT PhDs are there. That’s because if NUS accepts a Singaporean who is not good enough over a FT who is better academically, then it sets a precedent for other universities to do the same and discriminate against Singaporeans. Which is bad for the talented people in the long run – who have to go overseas – like what you mentioned in your blog post (and is repeated in italics above).
Related posts:
- Only One Singaporean PhD Student in NUS Economics Faculty!
- Cost of financing medical study abroad for Singaporean: $600, 000!
- Singaporeans can also be foreign talent
- Unfair study fees – prove me wrong
- Singaporean PMET working abroad: “How important is a global city to an unemployed man?”
- Four Shameful Foreigner-First Policies Damaging To Singaporeans
- S’pore grads not good enough? Recruitment ad targets foreign uni grads
- MOM: 8 out of 10 Singaporeans from ages 25 to 64 years old working – True?
- 5 Reasons Why Foreigners Don’t Respect Singaporeans
- Online Tuition Centre
As I have explain it many times if you look at writings in my blog, there is no reason why NUS “cannot” find Singaporeans to do PHD.
Iceland, Luxembourg are all much more smaller than us. Israel is not much bigger.
Yet their own citizen are doing PHD in their own schools. So the only explanation for our dismay citizen PHD numbers is either discrimination by PAP and their lackies in universities, or the professors are really so screwed up that no one want to study under them.
I think the reasons are both.
Despite the rhetoric of hiring talents, professors here are mediocre or even down right stupid. There are no Nobel Laureates, Field Medalist, Turing winners….etc
Reasons are great intellectual are not able to stooge under a dictator without making noise and instigating their students.
These people carry lots of weight and their dissent would greatly injured PAP’s credibility.
So PAP hates talent, and these smart Alex must be keep away from our shore.
Given so many fools in our Uni, nevertheless if these morons work hard enough, they may still entice local talents. Many obscure university else still manage to get its top students to study PHD.
Unfortunately, those morons are too much for our students.
My take is if “no Singaporean students” want to come under this professor, he must be sack. That means he is too incompetent and widely despises.
If every good Singaporeans want to go Goldman Sachs, then the entire NUS econs faculty must be fired because they cannot even stir up passion in academic.
If no above average Singaporeans students want to study PHD, the entire NUS econs must be sack as well. They can go for next tier of students, they can go for 3rd class, or no honors students. They didnt because they have no compassion for any of their Singaporeans students. They love foreigners more than locals.
If no Singaporeans want to do PHD, we must close down PHD program. Why we spend our monies on people’s son. I believe most go overseas after they finish their free education here.
LKY use our monies to pay them like king, Singaporeans suffer. No welfare, COE increase, GST increase… $$$$$ take from people to fund foreigners.