Foreign students were offered a total of 4,218 places by the the three universities in Singapore this year.

This works out to 18 per cent of the 22, 933 foreigners who have applied to study here, said the Ministry of Education (MOE) yesterday. It added that the number of places for foreign students is capped at 20 per cent.

MOE released the numbers a day after Minister of State for Education Gan Kim Yong told Parliament on Tuesday that 987 spots were offered to foreign students.

The Ministry said the 987 figure referred only to the foreign students who had obtained local A-level or polytechnic qualifications.

If foreign students who applied with foreign qualifications are included, the number of places offered by the universities here would come to 4,218.

For local students, 14,781 places, or 51 per cent, were offered to them by the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and Singapore Management University.

Mr Gan had said that the three universities give priority to local students.