SingTel, the Keppel Group, Sembcorp Industries and Alexandra Hospital are among top companies that hand out scholarships tenable only in local universities. -- ST PHOTO: ASHLEIGH SIM
THOSE applying for university scholarships from companies such as SingTel, the Keppel Group, Sembcorp Industries and Alexandra Hospital can perish the thought of jetting overseas.
These four are among top companies that hand out scholarships tenable only in local universities as they believe them to be as good as the Oxbridge, Ivy League or other brand-name institutions overseas.
Sembcorp, for example, said that the universities here were 'just as good', but because it had strong international operations, it encourages its scholars to get overseas exposure throughexchange programmes and sets up work-study stints at its overseas offices.
Major accountancy firm KPMG Singapore, for instance, has offered only local scholarships for over 20 years and has filled its top ranks with local graduates.
Mr Philip Lee, who heads the firm's people, performance and culture, said: 'Securing a place in a local university has always been competitive, and only the best academic performers succeed in getting placements in their choice of discipline. This is especially true of our business and accountancy schools.'
But the majority of companies still dangle offers of overseas scholarships in front of the brightest students. And there is no denying the country's top brains are choosing foreign over local universities, as former minister and Temasek Holdings chairman S. Dhanabalan noted recently.
Read the full story in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.
The two featured president's scholars are studying in NUS only because they are doing medicine.
Except for medicine and law, most faculties in our local universities, e.g. arts, science, engineering and business, have to cater to the "lesser lights" and can't offer the academic rigour for top students.
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Nov 23, 2009
Two who took the home path
AS PRESIDENT'S Scholars, Ms Kaan Hung Leng and Ms Tan Li Feng could have gone to any top-notch overseas university, and on the Government's dime, too.
But both opted, a year apart, to study medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
They said family ties have kept them here: Ms Kaan, 20, already has a sister studying in the United States and a brother who moved out of the family home after he got married.
'I stayed in Singapore because I didn't want my parents to feel lonely,' she said.
Ms Tan, 22, also cannot imagine spending six years away from her family.
Beyond kin, both also chose to continue their studies here out of a desire to know how Singapore ticks. Ms Kaan says she has a deep interest in local politics; Ms Tan believes that being trained here will prepare her better to be a doctor in Singapore.
Indeed, seven scholarship holders interviewed by The Straits Times echoed similar reasons for picking a local over an overseas university - family and the advantage of a Singapore context in preparing them for careers here.
Public Service Commission (PSC) scholarship holder Loh Wei-Liang, who is studying medicine on a local merit scholarship, said: 'If you want to practise here, you need to get used to the system here. The diseases and the demographic here are very different from another country's.'
Understanding Singapore is also important in fields like business or law.
For Singapore Management University (SMU) undergraduate Genevieve Wong, 20, who is doing a double degree in law and business management, studying here is useful because the course covers cases unique to Singapore.
Her coursemate Jo Tay, 21, withdrew from the final round of interviews for a PSC overseas scholarship to enter SMU.
She said: 'Since I'm studying business, I might as well be here. I was afraid of going overseas and then coming back to find I needed contacts, but didn't know anyone.'
She also believes local universities can hold their own against the best overseas.
Having spent three months at Harvard University this year, she was at first sceptical of being able to get the same academic opportunities at SMU. But she was impressed when SMU brought in the very professor whose work she admired and had researched at Harvard to present his newest paper.
PSC scholar Danielle Zheng, now doing her Master's degree in English Literature in London, credits her undergraduate programme at the NUS for her stronger grasp of world literature.
While those who choose to go to school here are convinced that the local schools deliver quality education, they do feel the occasional twinge of envy when hearing their friends talk about their lives abroad.
Ms Tan said: 'They seem to be having a ball of a time overseas and seem to have their minds stretched in amazing ways because of the intellectual rigour of some of the institutions they are in.'
But she has learnt to appreciate the local university community, and that one can learn 'from anyone and any place'.
She has done her share of travelling - from the Philippines to Ireland and Canada - with the NUS debate team, and the average local undergraduate now gets international exposure through overseas exchanges and work stints.
Asked about the 'prestige' that goes with being an alumnus of an overseas university, the scholarship holders lamented that local universities are underestimated.
Ms Zheng said: 'Sadly, the worst criticism NUS and the universities here face comes not from other people, but from fellow countrymen and the students themselves.'
JENNANI DURAI & KIMBERLY SPYKERMAN