SINGAPORE – It was a cold winter’s day when I received my Master of Science, around two years after I first thought of doing the higher degree and sent out applications.

But as I clutched the scroll in the rain, I wondered: “Was it all worth it?” I had spent over a year away from work, living in a tiny cramped space in central London at exorbitant rates, while sharing a kitchen with 10 other students, all to gain a paper certificate from the London School of Economics and Political Science.