By Liew Hanqing

KNOW of a potential scholar?

Refer him to us, and if he is accepted, we'll give you $500.

A new scheme introduced last week by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) promises that to its current scholars.

It announced the scheme through notices sent out to its current scholars last week, urging them to refer qualified colleagues, friends or relatives to apply for A*Star's graduate scholarship programmes.

These programmes pay for the scholars' graduate education at top international universities, including Harvard University, the University of Cambridge and Stanford University.

One of the agency's scholarships, the National Science Scholarship (PhD), supports up to five years of a scholar's PhD studies.

A spokesman for A*Star said the referral scheme was introduced to reach out to a wider pool of talent, both local and foreign.

'This will ensure that our scientific talent base continues to be diverse, international and world class,' she said.

She added that the referral fee was to reward their scholars' efforts in recommending their peers and to defray any costs they incur in communicating with them.

The scheme is currently open only to A*Star scholars. Those who make referrals are required to direct the potential candidate to the A*Star website to fill in an online application form.

They must then notify their respective scholarship officers about the referral.

The referrer will receive the referral fee once the candidate accepts the scholarship and formally begins the A*Star scholarship PhD programme.

The scheme has received mixed responses from A*Star staff The New Paper spoke to, and from netizens who posted on an online forum thread about the scheme.

A researcher at A*Star, who declined to be named, said she felt the scheme was not a good idea.

Said the researcher, who is not an A*Star scholar: 'It cheapens the whole system, and makes it sound like what some bank would do.

'Choosing to become an academic is a very individual thing. I don't understand why somebody else should profit from it.'

Sceptical

A netizen, who posted a copy of the A*Star notice sent out to scholars on a popular online forum, was sceptical about the scheme.

He wrote: 'Given this information, would anyone now believe any A*Star scholar who says good things about A*Star's scholarships?'

Others, however, welcomed the scheme.

Said a current A*Star scholar pursuing her PhD overseas: 'I don't think it's a bad idea; many companies do it. It's ultimately up to the candidate to decide for themselves.

'The scholarship board will presumably hold the candidate to the same standards as any other applicant.'

She added she felt it would be prudent to impose some type of limit on the number of referrals per person.

On whether she felt it would be a good idea to open the scheme to non-scholars as well, she said: 'Perhaps, if there are sufficient rules against A*Star decision-makers referring people, or staff referring family members, for example.'

Responding to the forum thread posted online this week, a netizen said there was 'nothing wrong' with the scheme.

'Many companies pay employees for referrals. Some are willing to pay up to thousands for key positions.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on Sept 4, 2008.