Parliamentary Replies
University Intake
Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Mrs Josephine Teo, MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC
Question
To ask the Minister for Education (a) if he will provide the reasons for the expected steady state enrolment of the fourth university being reduced from 12,000 to 4,000; and (b) whether the target to provide 30% of each cohort with university education opportunities by 2015 will still be met.
Response by Minister Ng Eng Hen
Government had committed to achieving the target to provide 30% of each cohort with publicly funded university education opportunities by 2015, up from the current 25%, and this has not changed.
The Committee on the Expansion of the University Sector (CEUS) recommended in its final report in August 2008 that the increase in cohort participation rate or an additional annual university intake of 2,400 can be achieved via two main ways — the establishment of a new university and expansion of the polytechnic-foreign specialised institution programmes.
As recently announced, the New University will partner the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a top Chinese university. MIT is a premier Science and Technology university that admits top students internationally. As I will elaborate later, MIT’s involvement will be deep and extensive. Courses and modules which MIT will help design are expected to be rigorous and will stretch students capabilities. As such, students need to have the requisite academic standards to benefit from these programs and admissions standards of the New University are expected to be high. All eligible Singaporeans who apply will be admitted but we project that the New University will take in about 1,000 undergraduates per year at steady state. In our previous projections we had planned for an intake of about 2,000, but this was before the specific US partner was confirmed. The smaller intake is realistic considering the partnership with MIT in selecting students that would be best suited for its programmes.
Together with the New University in partnership with MIT, the 30% CPR will be met through the establishment of the Singapore Institute of Applied Technology (SIAT) which will offer degree programmes through tie-ups with reputable foreign universities from around the world, in partnership with our polytechnics. The SIAT will create a new peak of excellence in our higher education landscape and at the same time expand the range of opportunities available to students through its applied degree offerings that build on the strengths of our polytechnic graduates. The SIAT will provide around 2,000 full-time places annually by 2015. Polytechnic upgraders are expected to be able to obtain their degrees from foreign Universities after two years at SIAT, a shorter time compared to the length required in existing public Universities. We estimate that Government will spend an estimated $1.6 billion to develop the SIAT over the next 10 years.