By Amelia Tan

ONCE a year, Mr Aaron Ng, a National University of Singapore (NUS) graduate, gets an e-mail appeal or a brochure asking him to donate to his alma mater.

The appeals all wind up in the same place - the bin, virtual or otherwise.

Thousands of alumni from the three universities here feel the same way, despite years of efforts to get them to donate to their former schools.

Just 2.5 per cent of NUS alumni - or 4,048 out of 162,000 ex-students - donated this financial year. At Nanyang Technological University (NTU), about 4.7 per cent - or 4,185 out of 88,200 - donated during the same period.

The lone bright spot: Singapore Management University (SMU), which saw about half of this year's graduating class giving something back.

But while the percentage of SMU donors is high, the actual amount raised was less so: $13,000. About 560 out of 1,167 graduating students donated: This works out to an average donation of about $23.

The amounts donated by NUS and NTU alumni were slightly more impressive: $5 million and $1.32 million, respectively.

The numbers pale in comparison with universities in the United States, on which alumni donation drives here are modelled. The average alumni participation rate there last year was 11.7 per cent. At the better schools, it is much higher.

Close to half the alumni of Harvard and Stanford donated to their schools last year, contributing US$188.16 million (S$266 million) and US$284.59 million, respectively.

Why such a big difference in donations? Quite apart from the number of former students - US universities are much older and thus have bigger alumni pools to draw from - it is a question of attitude.

Miss Melissa Pang, 24, who graduated in political science from NUS last year, spoke for many when she said: 'The sense of attachment to NUS just isn't there.'

University alumni interviewed by The Straits Times said their alma mater do not make them feel like they matter - until it comes time to raise funds.

Mr Ng, 26, gave the example of a rise in fees when he was an undergraduate: 'It was not nice to find out about a school fee increase by reading the newspapers in the morning. We want to be consulted before decisions are made.'

Many also do not have fond memories of their university years. They say the days went by in a blur of faces and papers, and few bonds to people and place were formed.

Said Mr Gavin Liow, 25, who graduated in June from NTU's Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information: 'When I think of NTU, all I remember are the crowded buses and crowded canteens.'

Social events at local universities here are practically non-existent. By contrast, many universities in the West have a social calendar dotted with sporting events, formal dinners every term and parties organised by fraternities and sororities.

The difference in university education here and abroad is exemplified by the way adults in Singapore and the West refer to it: Ask an American which school he is from, and he is likely to tell you he graduated from, say, the University of North Carolina.

Ask a Singaporean the same question, and the answer that comes back is more likely to be 'ACS', 'SJI' or 'RI'.

Secondary schools, it seems, form the kind of bonds with their students that the universities here can only dream about.

Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and St Joseph's Institution (SJI), for example, have managed to raise large sums from their alumni over the years. ACS (Independent) has raised about $10 million from its donation drives over the past four years.

SJI principal Benjamin Lui said bonds are formed more easily when students are in secondary school as they spend long periods of time together in class, at co-curricular activities and other school events.

'When people go to university, their main goal is to chase that degree and graduate. Many won't want to take the time off to socialise,' he added.

ACS (Independent) principal Ong Teck Chin added: 'Education at the universities tends to be more impersonal, and interaction does not last long.'

He added that parents of alumni are a large source of donations and bonds with them are cultivated by involving them in activities in the school.

Universities have tried to create some bonds, but their efforts, such as talks by development officers urging students to donate, have been criticised as 'superficial' and a 'hard-sell'.

Alumni feel the attempt to forge a sense of belonging is done only when they are about to graduate, in order to boost graduation class giving rates.

They are beseeched by development officers and classmates who have been appointed to raise funds to remember the good times they have had in the past three or four years.

Students are also mailed numerous brochures extolling the benefits - 'when you give, you receive' - of alumni giving.

Donating students are also told that their names will be flashed on plasma TV screens during convocation week.

Said Mr Liow, the NTU graduate: 'If the university wants us to donate, the administration should try to inculcate the school spirit in us by making our university experience memorable. But they are not doing so. All they are doing is asking us for money.'

Though such sentiments are the prevalent ones, there are signs that things are changing - slowly.

NTU materials science and engineering graduate Liew Laura- Lynn, 23, for instance, was moved by the appeals.

She donated to her faculty when she graduated in June this year as she was thankful for the opportunities she received.

One memorable experience she had was working at Nokia in Germany for six months last year as part of the university's industrial attachment programme.

She said: 'I donated as I want to enable my juniors to experience these opportunities too.'

Buoyed by such examples, universities are putting the pedal to the metal. Extensive campaigns to get current students and alumni to donate are being run.

Development offices have produced brochures, booklets, letters and e-mail appeals to encourage donations from alumni and their parents, for example.

Explaining the rationale for these extensive campaigns, the director of NTU's development office, Ms Marina Tan Harper, said: 'In the professional world of fund-raising, you cannot leave donations to chance...You have to solicit donors and call them up.'

NTU has decided to concentrate its efforts on encouraging each graduating class since 2005 to give back to the school and thus build a base of alumni who will continue to do so.

The results of this drive have been promising: 36 per cent of the Class of 2008 donated, almost five times more than the 8 per cent of the Class of 2005.

Slowly, participation rates are rising. NTU's current alumni participation rate of 4.7 per cent, for instance, compares to 0.2 per cent just three years ago.

NUS' current 2.5 per cent participation rate, meanwhile, is a step up from the 0.5 per cent three years ago.

To Ms Krista Slade, executive director of the Council for Advancement and Support for Education (Case) Asia-Pacific, a Washington-based organisation, that counts as good progress.

'Everyone looks at Harvard and Princeton's alumni participation rates and aspires to get there. But that is not the reality for most institutions,' she said.

'Singapore has made great progress in a short period of time...We will see the real effects in the generations to come. This is not a short-term activity.'

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