Thursday, October 26, 2006

On Support for Higher Education - Differences Between Singapore and America

Some thoughts after re-reading Mr Wang's post:

(On the effects of globalisation)

...the American worker may be displaced, but America knows that it is not his fault. And America knows that the American worker must not be left to die. America knows that the American worker needs help.

In Singapore, my sense is that the government is more likely to tell you: "Get out of my elite uncaring face". Not in those exact words, surely they would be more diplomatic, but the spirit of it would be largely the same. Yes?

...

Point is very simple.

It's not so much:

"there, there, it's not your fault"

vs

"you're losing out, you better do something about it"

... but

"you're in trouble, we know it, and we will help you"

vs

"you're losing out, you better do something about it".


I have yet to truly step out into the working world, but I can already see the differences in the way universities in both countries treat those having the most difficulty (and needy) in paying for college (or university studies).

I watched C-Span on Tuesday; it featured CollegeBoard's annual review of (U.S) college costs and financial aid.

Costs are going up, and federal aid in the form of Pell grants is going down. But some of the most established private and state universities have started their own inititatives to ensure that the poorest students are not denied access to college due to rising financial costs and without the need to borrow.

Examples include the Carolina Covenant, Access Virginia, Michigan's M-Pact, Washington's Husky Promise, plus the the likes of HYPM etc.

What do I see in the local (public) universities (NUS/NTU)?

They basically tell you to take a loan, while reserving the bulk of their scholarships for foreigners.

4 comments:

Fox said...

Actually, offering scholarships to foreign undergraduates, no matter how bright they are, to study in sg universities doesn't make them world-class in any way. World-class universities are world-class because of the quality of their research.

CK said...

NS for locals, jobs for foreigners.

Fox said...

Based on my experience as an undergraduate in NUS, I am quite certain that most of the foreign undergraduates on scholarships don't contribute at all to the quality of research in NUS/NTU. In fact, locals tend to more involved in undergraduate research than the foreign students.

Besides, if the professors really need bright research assistants, they can always increase the financial value of graduate fellowships or hire better postdocs.

Wowbagger said...

while the smaller and less established unis in the US can reach out to the less capable students, and offer them fully paid scholarships, sg unis can't afford to do that if they want to be world class

It is actually the best universities in the US who offer the most financial aid, simply because the best universities are also the richest.

I agree that sg universities cannot afford to do it, but that's not because they are not world class, but because they lack the enormous endowments that the best US universities have. And amongst the reasons for their puny endowments is the scarcity of millionaires in Singapore who would donate huge amounts to universities, and the apathetic (for good reason, mind you) alumni who don't care enough about their alma maters to repay them.