More Singaporeans choosing road less travelled when studying abroad

A small but growing cohort of Singaporean undergraduates are charting a less-trodden path. PHOTOS: COURTESY OF BRIAN WONG, SIYING PEK, SABRINA SUHAIMI & RUTH LUK

Teo Kai Xiang

UPDATED APR 07, 2024, 05:25 PM

SINGAPORE – The overwhelming majority of Singaporeans pursuing their studies abroad do so in one of three countries: the United States, Britain and Australia.
Nearly eight in 10 local students heading overseas made a beeline for these three countries in 2021, according to Unesco data on the global flow of higher-education students.
However, a small but growing cohort of Singaporean undergraduates are charting a less-trodden path, towards countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and Japan.

Singaporean degree-seekers in the Netherlands rose more than twofold from 32 in 2012 to 109 in 2022, according to Nuffic, the Dutch organisation for internationalisation in education.
In Germany, that figure increased from 167 in 2013 to 266 in 2022, according to the German Academic Exchange Service. For Japan, that number surged from 156 in 2008 to 287 in 2022, figures from the Japan Student Services Organisation reveal.
Singaporean students who enrolled in universities in these alternative academic destinations say they did so for reasons of affordability, flexibility and the quest for a unique international experience.

Studying in these non-anglophone destinations was more financially feasible for themselves and their families. For instance, tuition fees for international students in the Netherlands typically range between €9,000 (S$13,200) and €20,000 a year. Fees in Japan average around 820,000 yen (S$7,300) to 1,100,000 yen a year, while German universities generally do not charge tuition fees as public higher education is free.
In contrast, the average tuition fee for international students in Britain stands at £22,200 (S$37,500), while typical fees for international students in Australia are between A$20,000 (S$17,700) and A$45,000 a year. In Singapore, annual tuition fees at most public autonomous universities for Singaporeans costs between $7,500 and $12,700 after subsidies, depending on the course.
Students who spoke to The Straits Times say the relatively lower fees to study in the Netherlands, Germany and Japan give them a chance to spread their wings and live on their own without compromising on the quality of their degree, when they might otherwise not be able to afford to study overseas.
Ms Ruth Luk, 28, moved to the Netherlands in 2021 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in business at Tilburg University in North Brabant. That decision came after doing the sums, and realising that with two years of savings from her role as a job coach at the Autism Resource Centre (Singapore) and taking a student loan from a local bank, pursuing an education in the Netherlands was within her reach.

Her yearly tuition came up to €10,000, which she covered using her student loan. Her parents did not have to fork out any money. She estimates that she spent around €11,000 a year on living expenses, due to the relative affordability of her chosen city. She also did part-time jobs, tutoring and delivering food, in Tilburg.
She is glad for her choice, as the higher fees and living costs in the big three study destinations (Australia, Britain and the US) would have meant being saddled with “a more crippling” debt upon graduation.

For Ms Sabrina Suhaimi, 22, who initially applied only to industrial and product design programmes in the US and Britain, Japan was not on her shortlist. But the Covid-19 pandemic derailed her plans, and she started applying widely.
“One of my biggest reasons for picking Japan and sticking to it was because I could gain independence really quickly,” says the fourth-year student at Kyushu University’s undergraduate programme in interdisciplinary science and innovation, which is taught in Japanese and English.
Her tuition fees worked out to an affordable 535,800 yen a year. With the scholarship she received from her university, and by working part-time in retail and teaching in Fukuoka, she could fund her studies without monetary support from her parents by her second year in the Japanese city.
It helped that the relatively lower costs of living in Fukuoka – compared with cities such as Tokyo and Singapore – kept her rental and grocery expenses low. The main challenge for Ms Sabrina in terms of costs was finding affordable halal meal options, which were often double the price of non-halal ones, there.

Ms Pek Siying, a 21-year-old pursuing a medical degree in Heidelberg, Germany, says: “Studying at a university here was probably my best shot at trying to adult.”
By that, she means being able to afford a studio apartment rental at €600 a month, away from friends and family. She feels that renting alone and becoming a young adult among a wholly new community of friends are things not easily found among those in their 20s living in Singapore and other anglophone countries.
She has met only two other Singaporeans on campus, both of whom have since graduated, compared with the scores of Singaporeans enrolled in popular British universities. For example, University of Bristol has 250 Singaporean students enrolled now, while University College London has 669.
Plus, medical school fees at Heidelberg University sets her back about €3,000 a year, a fraction of what it costs elsewhere. Medical school fees typically cost more than £40,000 ($68,000) a year in Britain, and more than A$60,000 a year in Australia.

Beyond cost savingsBut it was not just economics that drove these students to their countries of choice. A common thread among these students was the quest to escape from the pressure-cooker and grade-focused environment in Singapore.
Ms Pek, who had set her sights on a career in the life sciences since she was in Secondary 4, decided on Heidelberg University because of its stellar medical faculty. “Applying for medicine locally was too competitive, and I wasn’t successful,” she says.
Heidelberg University is the top-ranked university in Germany in the QS World University Rankings for Life Sciences and Medicine. Internationally, it is ranked no. 39, six places behind the National University of Singapore.
Studying there was an easy choice that leveraged Ms Pek’s German-language skills – which she pursued as an A-level subject – in addition to being far cheaper than other alternatives.

Meanwhile, Mr Brian Wong, a 22-year-old student based in Tokyo, says he sought an alternative to Singapore’s “study-all-the-time” culture, which felt “like a prison”.
Holidays to Japan left him impressed by the country’s history and cultural traditions, so he spent his national service years learning Japanese through language-learning apps which connected him with other Japanese speakers.
Although the apps set him up with his first friends in the country, he had to be more fluent to be ready for university-level studies. Getting into his four-year undergraduate programme in global management at Chuo University in Tokyo – taught in English and Japanese – involved completing a foundational year in Japanese at a language school in Tokyo and passing a tough entry exam.
Afterwards, he found student life there less dominated by grade chasing than extracurricular clubs, internships, and exploring the country with trips to Chiba and Mount Fuji. “I’ve made a lot of Japanese friends, and if I moved back to Singapore, it would feel like I’m leaving behind half of myself,” he says.

Similarly, Ms Luk says her time in university was more focused on securing internships and networking than scoring As. That helped her land her current job on the operations team of a bank in Amsterdam upon graduation. It was an approach enabled by one of the notable quirks of the Dutch education system: Students can resit any exam once, at no penalty.
Now a year into her job there, she says the Netherlands’ multilingual workplace has not made her feel out of place as someone with limited conversational Dutch fluency. Her university course was taught in English.
She says the Netherlands is the place she calls home for now because it has what she finds lacking in Singapore, namely work-life balance and the ability to collect international experiences. These, she says, include enjoying more affordable concert culture and the ease of travelling around the borderless Schengen Area within the European Union.

Overcoming culture shockOf course, not treading the well-worn path is not all roses. Culture shock can prove to be a daunting and isolating challenge, especially in the initial months.
“I’ve never met someone who was like me, a Singaporean who was studying in my city long-term. Most of the ones I meet are in the Netherlands as exchange students,” says Ms Luk about her time in Tilburg.
The Singapore Students’ Association of Germany told The Straits Times it has around 20 active members, while the equivalent association in Japan has about 160. This is a stark contrast to big cities in anglophone countries with big Singaporean communities. For example, the Singapore Students Association at just one university in the US – the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign – has more than 120 students on its registry.
This scarcity of Singaporean compatriots means having to go it alone when dealing with culture shock. These range from unpleasant brushes with slow bureaucracy – fax machines and paper are preferred over e-mail in Germany and Japan – to struggling with a new language and getting used to a different way of life.
Mr Hannan Hazlan, a 26-year-old pursuing an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen, a public university in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, says: “I knew that Germany offered free tuition, but I didn’t know how hard learning German would be.”
He pays around €300 ($440) for a 14-week semester in administrative fees, which adds up to $880 a year.
While picking up everyday conversational German to order a meal is easy, understanding the technical German required for schooling is much tougher. The second-year undergrad credits the time he invested in learning the language prior to his course as the key reason why he was not overwhelmed by his German-language curriculum.
Besides a year spent at a language school in Berlin, he began studying German on his own during NS. Still, when he first moved there, Mr Hannan recalls having to ask locals if they spoke English.

But overcoming the linguistic challenge was worthwhile. Mr Hannan, who graduates in 2026, plans to settle down in Germany to build a career in the automotive industry, and has found a new community of friends.
As a car enthusiast, Germany was an intuitive choice for him, a way to combine his career aspirations – working for a leading carmaker such as Volkswagen or BMW – with a work culture that focuses less on grinding and hustle.
It helps that the country has an intense love of motoring. “Even people who don’t study here and are just visiting, they come to drive on the autobahn to experience driving 300km an hour or more on a public highway,” he says.
Meanwhile, Ms Sabrina, who moved to Japan with only an elementary grasp of Japanese, credits the immersion with getting her to her current level of fluency – the second-highest of Japan’s five-point scale of language proficiency.
“This was something I was very scared of doing, I didn’t want to lose face and talk to people before I was fluent in Japanese, but then eventually, I decided I had to,” she says.
Through joining groups such as her university’s entrepreneurship club and part-time sales work, her friends now include international students – who account for no more than 10 per cent of her current cohort of about 100 students – as well as Japanese co-workers and fellow business-minded locals.
Having bought a small Daihatsu car from a senior at the university for about $1,000, she now relishes driving around Kyushu and exploring the country – especially during the Covid-19 years when borders closed and tourism was at an all-time low.
She now plans to complete a two-year master’s degree at Kyushu University and contribute to the growing start-up scene in Fukuoka. She hopes to open a business that leverages the design and entrepreneurial skills she gained during her studies.
“I didn’t really put Japan on this pedestal where I thought it was going to be sparkly and beautiful all the time,” says Ms Sabrina. But she adds that these past four years studying there opened her eyes to a radically different world.
For those considering it, she has these words of advice: “I would say it’s not the right place if you’re not willing to take up the challenge of learning a new language and culture, and accept that what you already know isn’t universal.”

https://www.straitstimes.com/life/off-to-uni-in-japan-and-germany-more-singaporeans-choosing-road-less-travelled-when-studying-abroad

粗略翻譯：

赴日本和德國讀大學：更多新加坡人出國留學時，選擇人跡罕至的道路

絕大多數出國留學的新加坡人會選擇以下三個國家之一：美國、英國和澳洲。
根據聯合國教科文組織關於全球高等教育學生流動的數據，2021 年，近十分之八的出國本地學生直奔這三個國家。
然而，一小部分但不斷增長的新加坡本科生正在開闢一條鮮為人知的道路，前往荷蘭、德國和日本等國家。

根據荷蘭教育國際化組織 Nuffic 的數據，在荷蘭求學的新加坡學位人數從 2012 年的 32 人增加到 2022 年的 109 人，增加了一倍多。
根據德國學術交流服務中心的數據，在德國，這一數字從 2013 年的 167 人增加到 2022 年的 266 人。日本學生支援機構的數據顯示，日本的數字從 2008 年的 156 人激增至 2022 年的 287 人。
在這些求學替代目的地的大學就讀的新加坡學生表示，他們這樣做是出於負擔能力、靈活性和尋求獨特的國際經驗的原因。

對自己和家人來說，在這些非英語國家學習在經濟上更可行。例如，荷蘭國際學生的學費通常在每年 9,000 歐元（13,200 新元）到 20,000 歐元之間。日本的學費平均每年約為 820,000 日元（7,300 新元）至 1,100,000 日元，而德國大學一般不收取學費，因為公立高等教育是免費的。
相較之下，英國國際學生的平均學費為 22,200 英鎊（37,500 新元），而澳洲國際學生的典型費用為每年 20,000 澳元（17,700 新元）至 45,000 澳元。在新加坡，大多數新加坡人公立自治大學的學費在扣除補貼後每年在 7,500 美元到 12,700 美元之間，具體取決於課程。
接受《海峽時報》採訪的學生表示，在荷蘭、德國和日本留學的費用相對較低，這讓他們有機會在不影響學位品質的情況下獨立生活，否則他們可能無法獲得學位。負擔得起出國留學的費用。
28 歲的 Ruth Luk 女士於 2021 年移居荷蘭，在北布拉班特省的蒂爾堡大學攻讀商業學士學位。這項決定是在做了計算後做出的，她意識到，憑藉在自閉症資源中心（新加坡）擔任職業教練並從當地銀行獲得學生貸款的兩年積蓄，她去荷蘭接受教育是力所能及範圍內的事。

她每年的學費高達 10,000 歐元，她用學生貸款支付了這筆費用。她的父母不需要花任何錢。她估計，由於她選擇的城市的相對負擔能力，她每年的生活費用約為 11,000 歐元。她還在蒂爾堡做兼職，輔導和送餐。
她很高興自己的選擇，因為三大留學目的地（澳洲、英國和美國）的學費和生活成本較高，這意味著畢業後將背負「更嚴重」的債務。

對於 22 歲的 Sabrina Suhaimi 女士來說，她最初只申請了美國和英國的工業和產品設計項目，日本並不在她的候選名單上。但 Covid-19 大流行打亂了她的計劃，她開始廣泛申請。
「我選擇日本並堅持下去的最大原因之一是因為我可以很快獲得獨立，」九州大學跨學科科學與創新本科課程的四年級學生說，該課程以日語和英語授課。
她的學費一年為 535,800 日圓。憑藉著從大學獲得的獎學金，以及在福岡從事零售業和教書的兼職工作，她在日本城市的第二年就可以在沒有父母金錢支持的情況下資助自己的學業。
與東京和新加坡等城市相比，福岡的生活成本相對較低，有助於降低她的租金和雜貨費用。薩布麗娜女士在成本方面面臨的主要挑戰是找到負擔得起的清真食品選擇，這些食品的價格通常是非清真食品的兩倍。

21 歲的 Pek Siying 女士在德國海德堡攻讀醫學學位，她說：“在這裡的大學學習可能是我走向成熟的最佳機會。”
她的意思是，她能夠負擔每月 600 歐元的單間公寓租金，遠離朋友和家人。她覺得獨自租房並在全新的朋友圈中成為年輕人對於生活在新加坡和其他英語國家的20多歲的人來說是不容易的事情。
與在英國熱門大學就讀的新加坡人的分數相比，她在校園裡只遇到了另外兩名新加坡人，兩人都已畢業。例如，布里斯托大學目前有 250 名新加坡學生就讀，而倫敦大學學院則有 669 名學生。
此外，海德堡大學醫學院的學費每年讓她花費約 3,000 歐元，只是其他地方費用的一小部分。英國醫學院的學費通常每年超過 40,000 英鎊（68,000 美元），而澳洲每年則超過 60,000 澳元。

不僅僅是節省成本但促使這些學生來到他們選擇的國家的不僅僅是經濟因素。這些學生的一個共同點是尋求逃離新加坡高壓鍋和注重成績的環境。
Pek女士從中四開始就將目光投向生命科學領域，她選擇海德堡大學是因為大學擁有一流的醫學院。 「在當地申請醫學競爭太激烈，我沒有成功，」她說。
海德堡大學是QS世界大學生命科學和醫學排名中德國排名第一的大學。在國際上，它排名第一。排名第 39 位，落後新加坡國立大學 6 位。
在那裡學習是一個簡單的選擇，可以利用 Pek 女士的德語技能（她將其作為 A-level 科目進行學習），而且比其他選擇便宜得多。

與此同時，22 歲的東京學生Brian Wong表示，他正在尋求一種替代新加坡「無時無刻學習」文化的方式，這種文化感覺「就像一座監獄」。
去日本度假讓他對這個國家的歷史和文化傳統印象深刻，因此他在服役期間透過語言學習應用程式學習日語，這些應用程式將他與其他說日語的人聯繫起來。
儘管這些應用程式讓他認識了他在這個國家的第一批朋友，但他必須說得更流利才能為大學程度的學習做好準備。他在東京中央大學攻讀四年制全球管理本科課程（英語和日語授課），需要在東京的一所語言學校完成日語基礎課程，並通過嚴格的入學考試。
後來，他發現那裡的學生生活不再以追求成績為主導，而是參加課外俱樂部、實習，以及前往千葉和富士山探索這個國家。 「我交了很多日本朋友，如果我搬回新加坡，我會感覺自己丟掉了一半，」他說。

同樣，Luk女士表示，她在大學的時間更專注於獲得實習機會和人際網絡，而不是獲得 A 分。這幫助她畢業後在阿姆斯特丹一家銀行的營運團隊找到了目前的工作。這種方法是由荷蘭教育體系的一個顯著怪癖所促成的：學生可以重考一次考試，而不會受到任何處罰。
現在她在那裡工作一年了，她說荷蘭的多語言工作場所並沒有讓她因為荷蘭語會話流利程度有限而感到格格不入。她的大學課程是用英語授課的。
她說，荷蘭現在是她的家，因為荷蘭擁有新加坡所缺乏的東西，即工作與生活的平衡以及收集國際經驗的能力。她說，這些包括享受更實惠的音樂會文化以及在歐盟無邊界申根區旅行的便利性。

克服文化衝擊
當然，不走老路也並非全程順風順水。文化衝擊可能是一個令人畏懼和孤立的挑戰，尤其是在最初的幾個月。
「我從來沒有遇過像我這樣長期在我的城市學習的新加坡人。我遇到的大多數人都是在荷蘭作為交換生，」Luk女士談到她在蒂爾堡的時光時說道。
在德國的新加坡留學生會告訴《海峽時報》，該協會約有 20 名活躍會員，而日本的同類協會約有 160 名。這與擁有大型新加坡社區的英語國家的大城市形成鮮明對比。例如，美國一所大學——伊利諾大學厄巴納-香檳分校的新加坡學生會在其登記冊上就有超過 120 名學生。
新加坡同胞的稀缺意味著在應對文化衝擊時必須單打獨鬥。這些問題包括令人不快的官僚作風——在德國和日本，傳真機和紙張比電子郵件更受青睞——到努力學習新語言和適應不同的生活方式。
26 歲的 Hannan Hazlan 先生在德國北萊茵-威斯特法倫州的一所公立大學亞琛工業大學攻讀機械工程本科學位，他說：「我知道德國提供免費學費，但我不知道如何學德語會很辛苦。”
他為一個為期 14 週的學期支付了大約 300 歐元（440 美元）的管理費，每年總計 880 美元。
雖然學習日常德語點餐會話很容易，但理解學校教育所需的技術德語卻困難得多。這位二年級本科生認為，他在上課之前投入的時間學習語言是他沒有被德語課程淹沒的關鍵原因。
除了在柏林的一所語言學校學習了一年外，他還在國民服役期間開始自學德語。不過，Hannan先生回憶說，當他第一次搬到那裡時，他不得不詢問當地人是否會說英語。

但克服語言挑戰是值得的。Hannan先生將於 2026 年畢業，計劃定居德國，在汽車行業發展事業，並找到了新的朋友圈。
作為一名汽車愛好者，德國對他來說是一個直觀的選擇，這是一種將他的職業抱負（為大眾或寶馬等領先汽車製造商工作）與不那麼注重磨礪和忙碌的工作文化結合起來的方式。
這個國家對汽車的熱愛是有幫助的。 「即使不是在這裡學習、只是來參觀的人，他們也會來高速公路上開車，體驗在高速公路上行駛 300 公里或以上的時速，」他說。
同時，來到日本時只掌握了初級日語的Sabrina女士認為，這種沉浸感讓她達到了目前的流利程度——在日本語言能力五分制中排名第二。
「這是我非常害怕做的事情，在我能說流利的日語之前，我不想丟臉並與人交談，但最終，我決定必須這樣做，」她說。
透過加入大學創業俱樂部和兼職銷售工作等團體，她的朋友現在包括國際學生（在她目前約 100 名學生中，國際學生所佔比例不超過 10%）以及日本同事和同事。有商業頭腦的當地人。
她以大約1,000 美元的價格從一名大學四年級學生那裡購買了一輛小型大發汽車，現在她喜歡開車環遊九州並探索這個國家，尤其是在Covid-19 期間，邊境關閉，旅遊業處於歷史最低水準。
她現在計劃在九州大學完成兩年的碩士學位，並為福岡不斷發展的初創企業做出貢獻。她希望利用她在學習期間獲得的設計和創業技能來開設一家企業。
「我並沒有真正把日本放在這個基座上，我認為它會一直閃閃發光，美麗，」Sabrina女士說。但她補充說，過去四年的學習讓她看到了一個完全不同的世界。
對於那些正在考慮這一點的人，她有這樣的建議：「如果你不願意接受學習新語言和文化的挑戰，並接受你已經知道的東西並不適用的事實，我會說這不是正確的地方。普遍的。」