By Sumathi V. Selvaretnam

WHEN Mr Chan Jingzhong told his parents that he had clinched an internship in the Middle East, they were worried.

The third-year social sciences undergraduate at the Singapore Management University (SMU) said: 'They didn't know that Dubai was far away from areas of conflict like the Gaza Strip.'

It has been nearly two months since his arrival at the Persian Gulf city, and his parents have realised that their concerns were unfounded.

Mr Chan, 22, now a research assistant at the Gulf Research Centre working on alternative sources of energy for Dubai, lives with a Chinese Singaporean family.

He is getting used to the frequent sandstorms there, but finds driving to work to be more of a trial. He said: 'There are people from all over the world and the way they drive is seriously crazy.'

More students are now, like him, stepping out of their comfort zones and venturing into non-traditional destinations like the Middle East, Russia and Vietnam to gain a global outlook.

And building that global outlook is what the Education Ministry wants to encourage. Just last week, Education Minister Ng Eng Hen said it was important for students to be 'world ready', and to take the opportunities to learn about other countries and cultures.

The ministry will create those opportunities, he added. It is aiming for one in two university students here to have at least one overseas stint.

SMU, spurred by the success of its first business study mission to the region last year, sent another 75 students on a second one to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia this year.

Like Mr Chan, a number of them went on to take up internships at companies there. This year, 22 of them will go to the Middle East, three times more than the number last year.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School's vice-dean of undergraduate studies Quek Ser Aik said: 'We are seeing more students on exchange programmes, headed for destinations previously not considered by their predecessors.'

Among the unconventional destinations are Norway and South Korea.

The Himalayan region is a top pick among students from NUS' University Scholars Programme (USP), which exposes top students to leadership, critical thinking and world issues on top of their academic work.

Since 2006, 50 students have gone there to learn about biodiversity and sustainable development.

USP participant Christabel Sim, an English major, said: 'We studied the effects of landslides on mountainous villages and how people live and counter such natural disasters.'

The 22-year-old said that trips like these, which typically last about three weeks, put in context the theories and techniques they have learnt.

Professor Maharaj Pandit, who leads Project Himalaya, said: 'A one-day field visit can expose them to learning worth a lifetime.'

The Visiting Senior Fellow now lecturing in the USP, said exposing students to real-life situations in other cultures would make them more innovative and more likely to make major contributions to society.

Over at Nanyang Technological University, 70 students have had internships in Singapore companies in Vietnam in the past year.

Third-year mechanical engineering student Lam Wai Hong, 23, left for Ho Chi Minh City yesterday for a stint with industrial and business park developer Ascendas.

He said: 'I'm curious to see how the system works, as it is still a communist country that is trying to open its doors to the world.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times on June 16, 2008.