Firstly, Singapore universities are not the only ones giving out scholarships. All good universities worldwide, including Chinese universities, give scholarships to foreign students. Many strive to achieve at least 20 per cent foreigners among their student population. While we lament foreigners taking up our scholarships, we must not forget that many Singaporeans have also taken up scholarships from foreign universities. We take some, we give some, and this is the only fair thing to do.

Secondly, scholarships enable a healthy global exchange of talents and everyone is better off. If we stop giving scholarships to foreigners, shut our doors and reserve all places in our universities for locals, we will lose out. Our students will become inward looking and no better than frogs in a well. It goes against our formula for success, which is to interact with the best in the world, learning from them and only then can we compete effectively against them.

Thirdly, universities are not political institutions. While they have a responsibility to educate the citizens, it must operate independently in the pursuit of academic excellence. There must not be a political agenda and their primary objective is not to win votes for their political masters. Many top universities in the world are privately funded and they operate independently, with global perspectives and without a political agenda. Our local universities must be allowed to function independently and decide whom to be awarded these scholarships.

Dr Tan Hong Pew