Education Minister Lawrence Wong revealed that about 1,600 foreign students received tuition grants each year over the past few years, in his response to new parliamentary questions on the perenially hot topic of how the ministry allocates resources for local and international students.

In Parliament this week, Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Darryl David asked Mr Wong how many international students were accepted into local universities under the Tuition Grant Scheme (TGS) in the last five years and what those numbers as a percentage of the total university student population are.

He also asked whether the number of TGS international students will be reduced in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and, if so, whether this reduction will mean more places for Singaporean students. The ruling party politician also asked about the consequences for international students who cannot meet their TGS bond commitments in the present COVID-19 employment market.

Sengkang GRC MP also asked the Education Minister about what contingency plans are in place for foreign recipients of scholarships to serve out their bonds given the tightened restrictions on access to employment and other foreign-worker passes.

He further asked whether the Ministry will consider alternative mechanisms for recent graduates to serve out their commitments such as a deferral of the bond period or service of their bond periods with Singapore-owned or Singapore-affiliated companies abroad.

Mr Wong reaffirmed his ministry’s commitment to meeting the needs of Singaporeans, and said that places in the Autonomous Universities (AUs) are planned first and foremost for Singaporeans. He added that more seats were set aside at the AUs, to cater to Singaporeans whose overseas study plans were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Wong also shed light on the admission process for international students. The AUs first admit Singaporean students who are able to meet their admission standards, before raising the bar a few notches to admit a small number of international students, over and above the local students.

Asserting that “no Singaporean is displaced from an AU because of an international student,” Mr Wong revealed that around 1,600 foreign students received tuition grants in each cohort over the last five years. This amounts to less than 10 per cent of each intake.

While the numbers for the 2020 academic year is still being finalised, Mr Wong said he expects to see a similar trend this year.

Mr Wong added that admitting some foreign students is beneficial to Singaporeans. He said: “Having some international students adds to the diversity of the overall education experience and cultivates students’ global orientation and inter-cultural skills. It also better prepares them for the future workplace, where they may have to interact with different nationalities.”

The Minister promised: “We will continue to review and adjust the number of international students on tuition grant in the future, taking into consideration the quality of applicants and other factors.”

While Mr Wong asserted that the Government’s priority remains to support locals in finding employment given the current job scarcity, he said that international tuition grant holders who are obliged to serve a three-year bond after graduation will also be treated fairly. These students can serve out their obligations in Singapore or with Singapore-registered companies abroad.

One way Mr Wong’s ministry helps international tuition grant holders is by working with the universities and other public agencies to facilitate their applications for work pass arrangements here, while keeping to the Fair Consideration Framework.

Students are also given time to stay in Singapore to look for a job while the Government will extend help on a case-by-case basis to those who have genuine difficulties finding employment.

Extolling the value of calibrating its approach according to the economic outlook, Mr Wong added: “We will continue to monitor the situation and adjust our approach appropriate to the economic situation and outlook.”

Govt used to spend around S$476 million on foreign students, says WP politician

Singapore — In the midst of criticism of the balloting process of an adjournment motion filed by Workers’ Party (WP) Chairman Sylvia Lim last week, WP politician Yee Jenn Jong has recounted how he took great pains to file an adjournment motion at the last possible moment to avoid having to go through the ballot process back when he was a Non-Constituency MP (NCMP).

Mr Yee recalled on Facebook last Thursday (Oct 1) that he was the first to file an adjournment motion in the 12th Parliament of Singapore and that his motion was filed 11 months after that term commenced:

“When I was in the 12th parliament (2011-2015), I was the first to for that term. It was for 10 Sep 2012, 11 months after parliament had convened. Yup, not a single MP use this mechanism for 11 months.”

The opposition politician described the lengths he went to in a bid to avoid competition. Mr Yee filed his adjournment motion minutes before the cut-off time on the last day of the deadline to file such motions. He said that he was afraid that others might file adjournment motions to compete with him if he made his submission to early:

“For the adjournment motion I had filed, I went to Parliament House and waited at the library until 4.25 pm to email the Clerk of Parliament of my intention to file. Then I went to the Clerk’s office just below the library to hand in my printed request. 430 pm is the cut-off time for filing and it must be filed I think 3 working days before the sitting.

“I filed on the final day allowed for filing, a few minutes before cut off. I did so because I did not want to risk having to go for a ballot if I submitted my request too early and others start filing.

“This was because I was due to fly off on 10 Sep 2012 as a representative of Singapore’s parliament for an Asean parliamentarian gathering. I requested to delay my flight by a day. I did not want to risk my adjournment motion not be selected if there was to be a ballot. I had to travel and skip the sitting on 11 Sep.”

Only two days before Mr Yee’s post, Ms Lim lost a random ballot to pick an adjournment motion for Parliament this week. She had filed an adjournment motion on Sept 14 on the issues surrounding the court case involving former maid Parti Liyani.

On Sept 29, Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin announced that Ms Lim had lost the ballot of the adjournment motions filed for House. A motion filed by People’s Action Party (PAP) MP Louis Ng, calling for protection against secondhand smoke in homes, won the ballot.

The result of the ballot sparked criticism of the way a motion is selected. Mr Tan responded with multiple rebuttals of the criticism. Mr Ng, when urged by the critics to withdraw his motion and give way to Ms Lim, said he would also speak on the Parti Liyani case in Parliament.

Referring to the recent ballot, Mr Yee commented that he does not remember ever having five motions up for ballot. He wrote on Facebook: “Perhaps there were a rare few times with more than one wanting to use the adjournment motion mechanism, but I do not recall ever having 5 at one time. Could be a new record.”

Mr Yee also set out why adjournment motions can be useful for MPs to call attention to issues since they have 20 minutes to speak without a prolonged debate afterwards.

On the back of comments by Mr Tan that MPs have an array of avenues to raise issues, Mr Yee pointed out that there is a time limit when MPs want to highlight issues through parliamentary questions (PQs). Revealing that the Speaker would interrupt him and ask  him to hurry up when he tried to make a case when posing PQs to ministers, Mr Yee said:

“In any case, I am sure the Minister’s statement on this hot topic will be well debated upon. There is a limitation though when asking a Minister questions, on how long you can have to present your case. Technically, it should not be to make a speech in response to a Minister’s statement but to ask questions for clarifications.

“I had tried before to make a case or make a proposal when asking questions and the Speaker would interrupt and tell me to get to my question quickly. So a proper speech such as through an adjournment motion or a motion is better to lay out the points.”

Read his post in full here:

WP clarifies that Sylvia Lim has not abandoned her “Justice for All” parliamentary motion

Are Tan Chuan-Jin and Lim Wee Kiak claiming that mainstream media is biased towards WP?

Tan Chuan-Jin gets defensive in response to backlash for not picking Sylvia Lim’s adjournment motion

Louis Ng says he will also touch on Parti Liyani case in the face of calls for him to give way to Sylvia Lim

No motion on Parti Liyani in the next Parliament sitting