THERE have been recent media reports about the establishment of Singapore campuses of foreign universities.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) would like to take this opportunity to clarify that there are four local universities (Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University and UniSIM). In addition, seven foreign universities have been established here as part of EDB's Global Schoolhouse programme and they are: Chicago Graduate School of Business, DigiPen Institute of Technology, ESSEC Business School, Insead, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, S P Jain Center of Management and University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Together, these institutions provide a wide range of high quality programmes at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Many foreign universities are also offering degree programmes through local agents which are considered by MOE to be private education organisations (PEOs). However, these PEOs do not have university status in Singapore.

Members of the public are welcome to check the type of establishment regime of educational institutions at MOE's web page, http://www.moe.gov.sg under the heading 'Education System'. Local universities as well as those foreign universities established as part of EDB's Global Schoolhouse programme are listed under the 'Post-Secondary' sub-heading, while external degree programmes are listed under the 'Private Schools' sub-heading.

Perry Lim
Director, Higher Education Ministry of Education

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Apr 2, 2008.