Varsities: Talent-centred or citizen-centred?
I read a most thought-provoking article in The Straits Times on April 7 - 'How to win alumni and donors'.

It was a speech by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew at the 800th Cambridge University celebration in Hong Kong. It was about his enduring sense of gratitude for all the experiences and help he received as a student at Cambridge.

He then compared this to the contrasting allegiances of Cambridge graduate and ST columnist Chua Mui Hoong who suffered the indignity of a 50-pound fine when her sister stayed for two weeks in her dormitory at Cambridge but received overwhelming love and support at Massachusetts Institute of Technology when she stayed on in Boston for breast cancer treatment.

She was quoted as asking: 'What is it in a university's experience that creates loyalty in alumni, and what is it that alienates them?'

She gave a three-point answer:

Sense of community

Good communication with alumni.

Student-centred administration.

Let me pose an equally relevant question for Singapore. What is it in a nation that creates loyalty in citizens, and what alienates them? There is no simple answer. It is not easy for any government to balance all considerations. But talking about university students, I have a point to make.

In the National University of Singapore Academic Yearbook 2006-2007, the fees paid by medical students reveal a talent-centred administration to whom citizenship is worth a few dollars. Compare the following:

Singapore citizens and permanent residents: Full fees - $81,610. Payment after tuition grant - $17,010.

International students: Full fees - $83,310. Payment after tuition grant - $18,710.

My son, as an international student at the University of Western Australia, pays full fees of A$42,000 (S$50,000) a year while Australians pay a tiny fraction and have access to generous study loans.

Why do international students take some of the places of our own boys who have put in 2 1/2 years of national service? Why do foreigners get to pay almost the same rates as 'fortunate' citizens who win a place at NUS? Presumably the answer is talent. Singapore needs talent.

Singapore also needs to be more citizen-centred. For without citizens who love their nation because they have first been loved, the richest nation will have no soul.

Tan Thiam Chye

20% quota for foreigners in varsities does injustice to S'pore students

Having a fixed quota of 20% foreign students in our three universities is doing a grave injustice to Singaporean students.

News reports have stated that there are only 12,800 vacancies and 74,000 local applications, with 2,560 places given to wealthy Gulf states and other foreigners.

The outrage of Singaporeans who cannot get a place in our three local universities can be politically explosive with the looming elections.

Only one out of every six locals will be successful in their applications and yet the universities reserve 20% of places for foreign students.

The unfairness of it and the strong feelings of being relegated to second-class citizens compared with foreign talents can only be provoked by this issue.

The person who suggested that rejected Singaporean students can turn to the local campuses of foreign universities in Singapore had added salt to the wounds.

Why should we pay through our noses in the foreign universities when eligible Singaporean students are being unfairly discriminated against and displaced by foreigners as a matter of policy?

Lim Boon Hee