IF some of the best and brightest in Asia are turning to Singapore for their education fix, then why are Singaporeans still going overseas?

Just look at the accolades the Singapore private education sector has been receiving.

A recent Times of India report said that Asian students who traditionally looked to English-speaking Western countries for higher education are increasingly turning closer to home - to Singapore.

The report added that Singapore has managed to woo more than 16 of the world's leading schools to set up campuses as part of the city-state's "Global Schoolhouse" ambition.

It said: "Singapore's education blueprint aims to attract 150,000 foreign students by 2015 in an industry that has mainly been the turf of American and British institutions.

"There are currently 80,000 foreign students in Singapore, up from 50,000 in 2001, mostly from Malaysia, Vietnam, China, India and South Korea, government figures show."

And the numbers are growing.

Added the Times of India report: "The country's two main universities - National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University - are already held in high esteem by their regional peers but getting the world's elite schools to run courses here has further raised the city-state's academic standing, educators say."

Successful

In another report by wire agency AFP, associate professor of international studies at Australia's Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Christopher Ziguras, said Singapore's well-defined goal of catering to global demand for higher education has paid off.

He said the city-state has successfully planted itself as a serious rival to institutions in Australia and New Zealand, the two main Asia-Pacific study destinations for Asian students.

"I think what we see as being most impressive is strong government support for the education sector. It's been very successful in putting Singapore on the map of education," said Prof Ziguras.

Singapore is "taken very seriously by Australia and New Zealand as a competitor," he told AFP.

Some private institutions with their presence here have excelled on the world's stage.

France's Insead was ranked second for Top Non-US One Year Business Schools by Forbes.

It is the first international business school to have a full-fledged Asian campus, when the Singapore offshoot opened in 2000 offering MBA, executive MBA and PhD courses.

Ranked third in the world by the same study but in the Top Non-US Two-Year Business Schools category was UK's Manchester Business School, which also has a Singapore branch.

Then there is New York's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, whose alumni includes Oscar-winning director Ang Lee, which also has its Asia campus here.

Strategically located between the two growing powerhouses of potential students - China and India - Singapore's private education sector looks set to boom.

Besides its standing as an education hub, its reputation for standards precedes it.

Even the sudden departure of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) did not dent Singapore's reputation.

As Ms Aw Kah Peng, EDB's assistant managing director for industry development, told the Times of India: "The closure of UNSW Asia has neither affected our standing nor our aspirations to become an educational hub.

"EDB remains committed to realising its Global Schoolhouse vision and we will continue to bring in new projects and build on the strong base that we already have."

And that is precisely why The New Paper has produced this education guide.

It is to showcase not only the variety of schools that we already have in Singapore but also the type of students they are attracting.

Gone are the days when the only progression after the O levels was either through the polytechnic or junior college routes.

Now, while some local students are choosing the private route, the number is still small.

Those who do, however, still get that coveted degree and even post-graduate qualifications.

Some have gotten their qualifications earlier than their friends taking the conventional route.

And the schools are also responding positively to this heightened interest.

They are moving away from the typical pattern of the past - a classroom lecture followed by assignments and examinations - to introducing a more all-rounded curriculum.

There are student councils for leadership development, there are field trips and there are even overseas experiences.

Singapore's private education sector is slowly but surely giving the traditionalists a real challenge. And The New Paper will keep you posted of its successes.

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