NUS submits proposal for tuition fee changes

[pianist]

after the civil service upward revision of junior and mid-level civil servants' pay, it is now the university's turn. so fortunate group of selected people. in the private sector, i heard of listed companies freezing pays and no bonus for this year.

SINGAPORE: The National University of Singapore (NUS) has submitted a proposal for tuition fee adjustments to the Education Ministry.

It is awaiting the ministry's reply and could not comment on the nature of the proposed adjustments.

But in a meeting with student leaders on Wednesday, NUS announced that it was increasing financial aid for needy students.

Bursaries for needy students will increase by S$4.5 million bringing the overall aid amount to S$9.5 million, starting from academic year 2012-2013.

These are aimed at helping over 1,100 needy Singaporean students at NUS.

The money will be disbursed from August when the new school term starts.

The varsity says students from the bottom 20 per cent of households in terms of average income per family member will get the most help.

It adds that previous tuition fee hikes were reasonable.

NUS Provost, Professor Tan Eng Chye, said that 70 per cent of the university's budget is spent on the salaries of the faculty staff. "Salaries. Right, and I think all of us, when we work in a company, we all yearn to see some salary adjustments every year. So do all the faculty staff."
During the financial downturn in 2009, fee hikes for public universities were put on the backburner. But fees went up in 2010 and 2011.

All eyes are now on when Singapore's tertiary institutions will officially announce their fee structures for 2012.

In response to media queries, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Singapore Management University (SMU) said that any adjustments to their tuition fees will be announced in due course.

[ken]

Just a wandareing taught as inflation catches up again with us......

I am not a degree holder.
Is studying a degree in Singapore a good investment ?
Does a degree helps you much ?
I think it benefits more in the public sector than a private sector.
How much to study for a degree ?

How much do you spend as a degree holder ?:huh:

[sgd]

for purpose of chit chat here.

I think if one aspire to be a doctor or surgeon or engineer or pilot or any profession that has to deal with higher science then it is necessary to get a degree.

Many of my friends are degrees holders some even were in managerial positions. A few years back some got laid off and couldn't find similar jobs because the working environment here favors cheap FT over locals.

Having observed some of what my friends gone through I do not believe having a degree today provides any insurance in this competitive job market. You could be a masters degree holder but in thailand they have people who have master's degree too many many people have and will work for 1.5 times less than what they pay you. What about india or china?

Instead being nimble and flexible having multiple skills, good track record and profile these days provides that security. It does not mean one will never get laid off but getting another job should be fairly confidence if you have multiple core strengths.

[kichialo]

"PE ratio" of getting a degree is too high already.

[PeterSoh]

In my opinion, it is fairly important to get a degree. As sgd said, nowadays degrees can be found everywhere, even masters, but I feel this does not mean a degree is worthless, it only goes to show how much more competitive the world is now compared to the past. Hence, having a degree in this day is equivalent to having a primary school certificate to enter the workforce.

Education qualifications are only one thing employers would look at, I would say that better qualifications help you to get noticed or stand out of the crowd, after that, it all depends on your soft skills as what sgd said, being nimble, flexible, good critical thinking, attitude... and so on.
In order to add more value to yourself, for the financial side, you can take up courses such as CPA or CFA to boost yourself and make yourself more appealing to employers.

So all in all, I feel that it is still good to have a degree.

[Jared Seah]

First of all, I am not a graduate; but this is what I've experienced in my 26 years of working life:

1) A degree and an education are same same but different. I've worked with graduates that are not "educated" and gave me many face-palm moments... I've to "ease" them out of my project team; I don't suffer fools easily at work.

2) Where you get your degrees matter more than grades or types of degrees. I've worked with suppliers in Mainland China and Taiwan, and found graduates from Ivy League universities (Tsing Hua, Bei Da, National Taiwan, etc) just carry themselves differently... I guess this confidence comes from the quality of the old school boy network - especially if the Prime Minister, CEO, Towkay come from the same mother school!

3) In Shanghai, we advertised for normal graduates, but were overwhelmed with MBA applicants, many from overseas universities. We offered the same local uni grad salary they also accepted!? It's a buyer's market!

In one year, it was so bad that some "enterprising" local mainland grads offered to work for free for 1 year just to "outbid" their competitors in their job hunt with the local mainland employers. There is a reason why FT are leaner, meaner, quicker.

4) When I hire, I don't hire a piece of paper - I hire a person. Its very sad to cross the names of applicants out just because they can't string 2 sentences together...

[PeterSoh]

Jared, what you said is not wrong, but I feel that there is a difference 26 years ago and now.

My mother only had a sec 4 certificate, yet during her time when she started working, she performed well and rose quickly in her career and she told me, through her working life, she only needed to send her resume once (her first job) and subsequently, people wanted to hire her as they valued her.

Now, for people who are keen to look for their first job has so much competition as everyone values education. I do agree soft skills are very important, I think a good ratio would be 75% soft skill 25% hard skill. Technical stuff can be learned but soft skills have to be cultivated through their life. Sadly, most employers do look at resumes first then filtering the 'good and bad' ones just by judging their education certificate. Thus, imagine people who do not have a degree in this generation, how tough it might be to get a job in the industry. Hence, I agree with what Jared says, and also still believe that it's important to have a degree

[Big Toe]

Now let's not carried away with degrees and the paper chase.

Ultimately it's about knowledge acquisition. Education is simply a formal way of putting it.
I see 2 advantages of going through this formal process.

1. It allows a person to access a wider variety of positions and a higher starting pay.
2. For specialized degrees, it is the only way to gain employment within that field of work.

Interestingly enough, I have seen engineers who are doing extremely well working full time in property and investments.
But I have never seen a Estate Management/Real estate graduate trying their hand in Engineering.

Anyway, I think our education system is designed to churn out skilled/disciplined workers.
This is to feed the needs of MNCs/GLCs here. It's tough to swim against the tide and strike out on your own.
Our default setting is to find a good job.

Just recently I spoke to a good friend, an advertising professional. Hard working, multiple ad award winner but no bonus and unhappy with work. I asked why he didn't want to strike out of his own? Advertising is all about creativity and human capital, it's easier to set up than most businesses. Instead, he looked at me and with a negative tone, said, 'you think it's easy'

No one said it would be easy, in fact it would be more than difficult, but it definitely would be worth the while. Beats complaining about colleagues, the company, the boss... ...

Even the creative industry, supposedly bold and full of ideas, has succumbed to our default social order.

[hyom]

The value of a degree comes from the paper certificate which makes it easier to open doors in the job market. If the sole purpose of the degree is knowledge acquisition, then with today's cost of getting a degree, it is poor value for money.

"PE ratio" of getting a degree is too high already.

That is a good way to put it. Personally, I think the value approach to getting an education is through free resources in the internet and the library. The knowledge acquired from my engineering degree is quite useless if I had not updated my knowledge through Google search. Whenever my employer asks me whether I need to go for training, I always decline(unless it comes with recognized certification) because it is simply not value for money when there are so much good learning resources on the net. Although I do not stinge on investment tools, I had never need to pay much for acquiring investment knowledge. Google, Youtube, investment websites/forums like this one and our library provide very good value for money for knowledge acquisition. The "PE ratio" of getting an education through the internet is negligible compared to going to the universities. The downside is that the social aspect is missing.

If a person is getting an education to get a job, getting a degree from recognized universities is still the way. However, if he is an entrepreneur or a private investor who does not need to impress anyone with what he knows to earn money, then getting an education through the internet is the value-for-money way to go.

http://help-your-money.blogspot.com

[corydorus]

Getting a Degree definitely give you a headstart or level the playing field. What i experience during my days is the critical thinking given to our minds on resolving difficult problems.

I would say the advance topics i learned only really applied once early in my career and maybe just 1% of all i studied throughout my University. But this 1% manage to WOW my procurment manager on the technical aspect. This is what it takes to give me a good lift in my work.

Sadly there will always be examples of exception of people without Degree who do very well. So are Billionaires who are school dropout. This group of people maybe has better luck, probably better genes or right environment which most people don't.
Please do not be misguided.


Cory