https://www.quora.com/Why-does-NUS-have-more-PhD-students-from-China-than-from-local-Singapore

Miow Koon Yong:

NUS have more PhD students from both India and China than the local Singaporeans. The reasons are quite obvious:-

1. We do not have a sufficiently large pool of local graduates interested in pursuing PhD.
2. There are ample scholarships available to our top students to pursue PhD overseas. ASTAR has enabled hundreds if not thousands of our top scholars to do their PhD overseas.
3. The interested local graduates are also more interested in pursuing their PhD overseas either with support from parents or from scholarship.
4. There are also sufficient opportunities for local graduates to find employment right after their first degree. So, why do a PhD?
5. PhD holders have greater difficulties getting decent paying job befitting their educational level in Singapore as compared to first degree graduates and often a PhD is not a blessing unless in very specialised research areas.

So, our very pragmatic and down-to-earth Singaporean graduates will just get a job and start earning money rather than consider a PhD education.

Jedrek Goh:

As mentioned by Miow Koon Yong, there are numerous points which I personally agree with him. Let’s break down the question to two parts: High number of students from China and low number of students from Singapore.

High number of students from China

1.Singapore is culturally similar to China. As the majority of Singapore comprises mainly of chinese, china students feel more welcomed to come here to pursue a PhD than in the other parts of the world.

2.This is coupled with the fact that NUS is recognised as the top institution in Asia,based on the QS University Rankings.

3. “Like attracts like” >> More chinese students recommend their friends to come to Singapore to pursue a PhD

4. Stepping stone to work and settle down in Singapore :)

Low number of students from Singapore

1.Better to do PhD in an overseas institution than in a local environment: Diversity of fresh ideas>> I guess this applies to Chinese students too

2.Stepping stone to migrate overseas: Students that decided on the PhD route are more likely to go abroad and work in the research institutions/universities there due to the lack of attractive career opportunities in research within Singapore. The research atmosphere here is currently not as diverse as the US/UK. Compare US/UK PhD and Singapore PhD, which is better?

3.Practicality of Singaporeans: Many will only do PhD if guaranteed a scholarship,if not working post-graduation is a better choice to take as one is able to generate more income in the long run.

4.PhD is seen to be an uncertain career track since it involves a lot of creativity and risk-taking in the field of research,which is considered to be a big “no” for many Singaporeans who prefer a career of stability. Take for example, the graduate doctor of medicine programme,that allows one to transit to become a medical doctor. This programme is considered to be a more popular and versatile option, compared to the PhD. It allows graduates to work in a hospital and should they detest clinical work,go on to do research work. The same can be said to other coursework degrees. A lot of Singaporeans do masters coursework in Singapore,but not a PhD,because it is easier to transit to work in an industry.

Zhun-Yong Ong:

Why does NUS have more PhD students from China than from local Singapore?

This is partly because there are relatively few academically strong local undergraduates in Singapore universities, resulting in a smaller pool of qualified applicants to science/engineering PhD programs in NUS and NTU

I am surprised that no one else has mentioned this. One significant reason why you don’t see many local PhD students in NUS is that the many Singapore government/public scholarship schemes, which sponsor Singaporeans to study in top universities in the US and the UK, strip the applicant pool for Singapore universities of many of its academically strongest local students. As a result, a very large fraction of the top local A-level students simply do not go to NUS or NTU because they can go to schools like Oxford and Carnegie Mellon on public scholarships. This is fairly obvious to anyone who is an alumnus of NUS (or NTU) and a premier pre-university institution/high school like the one based in Bishan[1] or the other one sited along Bukit Timah Rd.[2]

In other words, this is basically a supply or input issue. The public scholarship system reduces substantially the amount of potential local academic talent that can feed the PhD programs of Singapore universities, given that most local PhD students in NUS and NTU get their undergraduate degrees from NUS or NTU.

In addition, the high average household income in Singapore means that many of the academically stronger A-level students come from families with the financial resources to allow them to attend college overseas, exacerbating the shortage in qualified/motivated applicants since most Singaporeans who did their undergraduate study overseas and are interested in doing a PhD are generally less inclined for various reasons to do their PhD in NUS or NTU. But, in my opinion, this is likely a second-order effect. The primary cause of the weakened applicant pool is really the public scholarship system.

Footnotes

[1] Raffles Institution - Wikipedia

[2] Hwa Chong Institution - Wikipedia

Assistant:

The higher number of PhD students from China at the National University of Singapore (NUS) compared to local Singaporean students can be attributed to several factors:

1. Global Reputation: NUS is recognized as one of the top universities in Asia and globally, attracting students from around the world, including a significant number from China, who seek high-quality education and research opportunities.
2. Research Opportunities: NUS offers extensive research facilities and funding, which can be particularly appealing to international students looking to advance in their academic careers.
3. Government Policies: The Singaporean government actively promotes higher education and research, which includes initiatives to attract international talent. This can create a more favorable environment for foreign students.
4. Cultural and Academic Exchange: Singapore has a long history of academic collaboration with Chinese institutions, fostering partnerships that encourage Chinese students to pursue their PhDs at NUS.
5. Local Student Demographics: Singapore has a smaller local population, and the number of students pursuing PhDs tends to be lower compared to the larger pool of students in China.
6. Language and Cultural Familiarity: Many Chinese students may find it easier to adapt to life in Singapore due to cultural similarities and the prevalence of Mandarin, which is one of the official languages in Singapore.

These factors combined contribute to the trend of more PhD students from China at NUS compared to local students.

Keegan Kang:

This question is odd. Do you first mean Singapore as in: “Why does NUS have more PhD students from China than from the local city it is in?”, or “Why does NUS have more PhD students from China than from the country it is in?”

Expressing the question as the former is quite “duh”. Eg, Cambridge University probably has more Chinese PhD students than PhD students hailing from the city of Cambridge. Warwick University probably also has more Chinese PhD students than PhD students from Coventry (yeah, it’s weird how Warwick’s based in Coventry and not Warwick).

In fact, I’d probably say Cornell has more PhD students from NYC (or SF) than home-grown PhD students in Ithaca (the city where Cornell is). Nothing wrong with that if you’re comparing cities.

And I think it’s to be expected, right?

If you do a PhD (with the intent of broadening your horizons / learning more from different people) - do you choose to do it in the hometown you grew up in (group think! same Singaporean mindset!) or do you do it at a different place?

I mean sure - exceptions can be made if there’s faculty that’s directly doing research you are interested in. But in the majority of the cases - doing a PhD in the same town you grew up in doesn’t make sense, unless you view a PhD as nothing special - just something to get it over and done with to get hired - so just do where-ever lor - and therefore more Chinese students than Singaporeans is bad.

So - let’s assume the person asking this question means the second case, i.e. why does NUS have more PhD students from China than PhD students from Singapore.

It’s a case of numbers then? As in the population of China versus the population of Singapore. In fact, we are probably over-represented at top tier universities overseas as PhD students given our small size.

Sure - the number of Chinese students will always be greater than the number of Singaporean students. But given the relative size of China’s population and Singapore’s population? It’s expected.

Just for fun - I looked at the NUS School of Computing graduate students.

http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/programmes/pg/directory/

and counted 59 Chinese names out of 150 students. So that’s an estimate of about 40% Chinese students - assuming every Chinese name is someone from China.

I picked computing since that’s one of the hot areas now (with Machine Learning and all that).

Does 40% seem a lot?

So I also looked at Cornell University’s CS department - there’s about 45 Chinese names out of 164 students. It’s about 27% - a bit lower than 40% (but consider the fact that Singapore is nearer to China, and we speak the same language).

I also looked at Harvard University’s Statistics PhD programme. About 16 Chinese names out of 40 students. Also about 40% ish.

For Cornell University’s Statistics PhD programme, about 20 Chinese names out of 34 students. About 58%. (I also happen to know who admits these students per year - and the faculty that do so are not Chinese ; so no bias in “selection because same country” there).

Now, I heartily admit I am cherry picking - but I’m picking top tier Universities (maybe comparable to NUS? Or not?) and Departments where the graduates ought to earn high paying jobs (because machine learning! because data science!) - and hence popular with students all over the world.

So if the person asking the question means “Why does NUS have more PhD students from China than from the country it is in?” ; then the answer is: “cause of relative sizes of population - in fact Singaporeans are over-represented compared to the Chinese”. Think about that.

Just to conclude - why don’t we rephrase the original question. Pick a top tier University in the world. Let’s say Harvard.

Then we ask: “Why does Harvard have more PhD students from China than from local Boston?” I guarantee - this question will be met with much more derision.

Anonymous:

There aren’t that many locals who are interested in the first place. In general, Singaporeans are not really interested on postgraduate education.

You can do an unscientific survey in NUS, you will likely find that for both master and PhD programs, foreigners vastly outnumber both Singaporean citizens and Singaporean permanent residents.

I remember when I did master in NUS, there were probably 7 or 8 Singaporean citizens, around 15 to 20 Singaporean permanent residents, and 100+ foreigners. So it seems to not be something of Singaporean gene, but the culture in Singapore discourages postgraduate education, as evinced by the fact that Singaporean permanent residents, which likely have been living in Singapore for quite a while, were also rare.

But those locals who indeed go for postgraduate education, especially PhD, prefer to go overseas.

Anonymous:

Apart from what others have mentioned, it is also important to note that NUS is a well-known brand in China. NUS does not yet have the gravitas of Harvard or Cambridge, but Chinese recruiters know NUS as a good university.

Chinese universities and Chinese companies come regularly to NUS to recruit faculties and researchers. Obviously the applicants are the current Chinese PhD students and postdocs. I have even seen some recruitment advertisements written only in Chinese, obviously targeted to the Chinese.

This, and the fact that there are already a lot of Chinese students in NUS, means that there will still be a lot of Chinese students interested to go to NUS for years to come.

Of course, cultural similarity is also an attracting factor. Most Singaporeans, for all complains they have about Chinese language, never refuses to speak Chinese if they speak to a Chinese person. There are also a lot of foreigners in Singapore who prefer to speak Chinese (e.g. Chinese and Chinese-Malaysians). A lot of professors are also perfectly happy to speak Chinese to their PhD students. Depending on who the professor is and who the group mates are, it may even be possible for a Chinese student to go for days speaking only Chinese.