Universities here to admit more students this year

Singapore's autonomous univer-sities will be able to admit more students this year as overseas study options continue to be disrupted by the Covid-19 pande-mic, said Education Minister Chan Chun Sing.

In a Facebook post yesterday morning, Mr Chan said that local universities will have "some flexibility" to admit more students, but that admissions will not be made easier.

He said: "The autonomous universities will continue to uphold admission standards and ensure a high quality of education."

In response to queries, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said that it is working closely with the six autonomous universities here to determine the appropriate number of places that will be opened up to undergraduates this year.

This will be done by monitoring the quality of the applicants as well as student demand in the ongoing admissions exercise, it said.

An MOE spokesman said in an e-mail statement: "The allocation of additional places across the universities and courses will take into account relevant factors such as the quality of the applicant pool, areas/disciplines with strong student interest and employment prospects, and the autonomous universities' capacity to take in more students."

She said that MOE will work with the universities to ensure that students' education journeys are not disrupted by the pandemic.

Singapore's six autonomous universities are: the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore Management University, Singapore University of Social Sciences and Singapore University of Technology and Design.

Last year, MOE said that the six universities would make about 2,000 more offers across a range of courses.

At the start of this year, then Education Minister Lawrence Wong said that about 1,000 extra places were given out across the autonomous universities.

Some of these places went to those who had originally planned to study overseas, while others went to those who opted to study instead of joining a weak job market.

Mr Chan said that MOE will continue to monitor the global Covid-19 situation and work closely with the autonomous universities to support students.

The pandemic as well as rising anti-Asian hate crimes in the West have led to a drop in the number of Singaporean students applying to traditionally popular higher education destinations.

Statistics on the British government website show that the number of student visa applications from Singaporeans to Britain fell to 1,421 last year, from 2,535 new applications in 2019.

For Australia, applications fell to 530 last year from 1,315 in 2019, a 59 per cent decrease.