THOSE looking to get a foreign-university degree without leaving these shores will have a new option next year, when Canada's University of New Brunswick (UNB) opens its doors here.

The publicly funded institution has teamed up with local education player Stansfield to set up a Singapore branch called the University of New Brunswick College (UNBC).

The courses offered here will be the same as those in the UNB in Canada, and students in the Singapore campus will sit for the same exams; Canadian faculty will teach the core courses, while local academics will tutor the foundation courses.

UNB's business dean Daniel Coleman, in Singapore to look into the set-up of the school, expects the take-up rate to be good because of the university's direct control over the courses and standards.

Several private institutions here offer foreign degree courses, but their courses are not directly managed by the universities themselves.

UNB plans to start off with business courses and take in 800 students in its first year. More courses, including those in logistics and supply chain management and tourism management, will be added later.

Dr Coleman said that UNB College will offer students an education comparable in quality to that at its Canadian campus. Upon graduation, its students here will receive degree certificates identical to the ones given out at its home-base campus and enjoy the same recognition from industry and the Canadian government.

Tuition fees for the four-year course, which can be done in three years, will come to $25,000 over three years - half of what a student from here will pay in Canada.

Mindful of the University of New South Wales' (UNSW) unsuccessful foray here, Dr Coleman said UNB has been careful to keep its overheads low by tying in with the Stansfield Group, which has provided the university with a campus in Upper Serangoon Road and an administrative and marketing network.

UNSW was building its own campus in Changi and charging $25,000 a year, just like for programmes in its Sydney campus.

Canadian High Commissioner Alan Virtue said: 'UNB has built a first-class reputation over the past decade for delivering a quality product at its offshore campuses and I know it'll do the same in Singapore.'

Polytechnic graduate Janice Teoh, 21, who wants a place in UNBC, said: 'Most foreign university programmes here are run by local private school partners, but if the university itself sets up and runs the campus, then you can be assured of quality.'

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