Home > Media Centre > Press Releases

REMARKS BY DR TONY TAN KENG YAM, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER AND CO-ORDINATING MINISTER FOR SECURITY AND DEFENCE, AT A PRESS CONFERENCE HELD AT ISTANA ON WEDNESDAY, 11 FEBRUARY 2004

I want to bring you up to date on our plans to diversify, upgrade and expand our university education in order to better prepare Singaporeans to take on tougher competition but also to take advantage of the opportunities which will emerge as we move into the New Economic World in the coming years.

First, our plan to make university education more accessible to more Singaporeans is on track.

We are committed to making available enough university places in our universities - NUS, NTU and SMU - so that by 2010, 25% of each cohort can go on to university education as against 21% today. This is a significant achievement considering only 5% 20 years ago.

To achieve this, we are transforming NUS into a multi-campus university, establishing NTU as a comprehensive university with 3 new schools, and continuing the expansion of SMU.

Second, we are encouraging universities overseas to establish branch campuses in Singapore.

At the postgraduate level, the University of Chicago School of Business and INSEAD already have their own campuses in Singapore, entirely independent, working on their own with no subsidy from the government, completely on their own. EDB is in discussion with reputable universities in Australia, UK and US to encourage them to establish branch campuses in Singapore which will provide not only postgraduate education but also undergraduate education.

The response from the universities contacted by EDB has been encouraging. EDB hopes to be able to announce the establishment of Singapore's first comprehensive private university, offering both postgraduate as well as undergraduate education some time this year.

Third, we are studying into whether NUS, NTU and SMU should and can be given more autonomy so that they can be nimble-footed to respond to market changes and can hold their own against overseas universities in a new university environment. In this new environment, NUS, NTU and SMU will no longer be the sole providers of full-time undergraduate university education in Singapore.

NUS and NTU already have considerable autonomy in their operations, following the University Governance and Funding Review in 2000.

However, they still have to refer to Government for approval each time they want to make an important decision e.g. changing their admission requirements, revising their tuition fees or spending on infrastructural projects.

You must have read a lot about the experience in England and Germany in recent months. The experience in these two countries has shown that public universities, which are heavily regulated by governments, are bogged down by bureaucracy and fall behind their counterparts in the United States which are more independent.

MOE will therefore discuss with the universities on how they can be more autonomous in their operations so that they can decide on their own matters such as admission requirements, fees and the best way to use the block grants which are allocated to them by MOE to defray their expenditure on infrastructure or staff remuneration.

In parallel with this process of giving more autonomy to our universities to run their operations, MOE has also established the Quality Assurance Framework for Universities.

Under this framework, MOE has commissioned an External Review Panel, which is chaired by Dr Jennifer Lee, CEO of K K Hospital, which will evaluate the universities and advise MOE if the universities are maintaining standards and delivering good value for the money allocated to them by the Government.

The External Review Panel will make its first evaluation of NUS later this year, followed by NTU and SMU in subsequent years. There are larger changes which will, over time, completely transform the landscape of university education in Singapore. It is understandable that the public and parents will have some apprehension on how this will affect them. I want to assure Singaporeans that as we restructure our university system, the Government will continue to make sure that no Singaporean who is capable of receiving university education will be denied of a university place because of a lack of finance. We will provide scholarships and other forms of financial assistance so that able students who make it to university but who need financial assistance will not be denied university education in Singapore. Human resources are Singapore's most important and most valuable asset in Singapore and we must make sure that every child who is capable of university education can make it to one of our universities.

It is an investment in the future. It is the best way the government can spend its money - not only for the sake of the students and parents, but for the rest of Singapore.