Pay 30% more to study in Singapore

Students making a beeline to complete their higher studies in Singapore would need to loosen their purse strings further.

The Ministry of Education, Singapore, has made it clear that foreign students, whose fees are already higher than those of its citizens and permanent residents, will have their fees increased by a further 30 per cent with effect from 2009.

The hike in fees has come about after the Singapore government's decision to introduce a clearer differentiation of fees paid for education by its citizens, permanent residents and foreigners.

While this would add to the already escalating education costs for Indian students wanting to study abroad, the Singapore ministry is convinced that the number of international students, especially from India, will continue to grow considering the expansion in product offerings.

A spokesperson of the Ministry of Education, Singapore confirmed there are currently about 530,000 students in primary schools, secondary schools, junior colleges and centralised institutes of which 4 per cent are foreign students.

In the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and polytechnics, out of about 80,500 students, close to 9 per cent are foreign students while of the publicly-funded autonomous universities, out of 43,700 students, around 20 per cent are foreign students. Majority of these students are from China and India.

While a Singaporean student citizen in a government secondary school will continue to pay an annual school fee of $60 Singapore (around Rs 1,700), a student belonging to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations will have to pay S$1,860 (around Rs 53,510) and a foreigner from elsewhere will be charged S$2,040. For foreign students attending universities, the fees are set to be 50 per cent higher than those for citizens.

"Students from India are usually interested in Business, Management, Engineering and IT courses. In line with the regional demand for talent in the tourism and creative industries, they have also shown growing interest in courses in the Digital Arts/Design/Media, as well as Tourism and Hospitality in Singaporean Universities. Considering the range of courses available from the academic year of 2007, we expect the international student pool to grow," said Siew-Kheng Khang Regional Director-South Asia, Middle East & Africa, Singapore Tourism Board.

Kheng Khang added the revised fee structure, which applies only to public institutions, will continue to remain competitive compared to that in other countries.