Minister Lim Hng Kiang's written reply to Parliament Questions on Singapore as an Education Hub

Question No. 576 of Notice Paper No. 83 of 2008

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Zainudin Nordin, Member for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC

Question
To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) if he will provide an update on the vision of making Singapore an education hub; (b) whether there exists a conducive eco-system that allows education services in Singapore to flourish; (c) whether the recent rise in property prices and operational costs has affected efforts to attract reputable institutions to locate in Singapore; (d) what is the present total number of foreign students in Singapore and the long term target of this number; and (e) whether the current immigration policy is in line with and "friendly" towards the objectives set for the education hub.

Question No. 599 of Notice Paper No. 97 of 2008

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mr Ang Mong Seng, Member for Hong Kah GRC

Question
To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry in view of our plans to be an international education hub (a) how many foreign students his Ministry intends to attract over the next 3 years; and (b) what are the plans to provide sufficient affordable accommodation for these students.

Answer
The Global Schoolhouse initiative was launched in 2002 with the objective of developing Singapore into a Global Schoolhouse, comprising a rich diversity of quality education institutions and programmes at all levels from pre-school to post-graduate study, and attracting an interesting mix of students from all over the world. Today, Singapore hosts more than 16 leading international institutions, as well as 41 preparatory & boarding schools (comprising 38 foreign system schools and 3 privately funded schools) in Singapore.

In recent years, we have successfully attracted a range of reputable foreign institutions to set up their campuses in Singapore. Besides leading foreign universities such as INSEAD and University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, we have also brought in renowned institutions, such as University of Nevada Las Vegas, New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Cornell University and Duke Graduate Medical School. The market for international education is growing quickly, especially in Asia. Singapore has many strengths: high education standards, secure and high quality living environment and our unique East-meets-West, cosmopolitan city. This puts us in a good position to secure high quality educational institutes. The strong growth in the number of international students in Singapore is evidence of the growing demand in this market – there are 86,000 international students studying in Singapore currently as compared to 50,000 students in 2002.We foresee similarly strong growth in the years to come. There is potential to grow to 120,000 international students over the next 3 years and to 150,000 international students in the longer term.

The Global Schoolhouse initiative is only possible because we have adopted a whole-of-government approach to develop this area with the support of many government agencies across different ministries. Besides EDB, others include the Ministry of Education, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Singapore Tourism Board and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, just to name a few. All our agencies work together to enhance Singapore’s educational ecosystem and allow the delivery of quality educational services. For example, the introduction of the recently announced “EduTrust” is an initiative that was rolled out by the Ministry of Education. EduTrust builds on the standards that had been achieved through Case Trust, by providing the necessary regulation required to bring the private education sector up to the next level of development.

We also adopt an open immigration policy to allow legitimate students to easily pursue their education in Singapore. The government through SLA, releases suitable sites to private hostel operators, to increase the supply of hostel accommodation. This ensures an adequate supply of affordable accommodation for the growing community of international students. We are thus confident that the Global Schoolhouse initiative is well on track to create a vibrant education hub in Singapore.