MORE of Singapore's brightest students should obtain their first degrees at local universities. In this way, people who expect to reach the upper rungs of society will have experience of the world as well as a good understanding of Singapore, gained in their undergraduate years.

The suggestion came from former minister and Temasek Holdings chairman S. Dhanabalan. He said a way to achieve it would be to change the way scholarships are awarded, to obtain a fairer distribution between home and abroad. The current system is skewed towards top students aiming to study in reputable universities abroad.

Mr Dhanabalan makes a valid observation. Undergraduates who spend their formative years here are more likely to develop sound 'local knowledge' and instincts. Because they have to do field studies and projects here, they obtain a better feel for the textures of Singaporean life. In a British or American university, such work would be done in the context of alien societies, useful as they are to develop a broad mental outlook.

The challenge really is for local universities to attain world-class status so that top students will choose to study here without being coerced. Unlike in the past, most scholarship recipients now are from affluent families. If awarded a local scholarship, they are likely to decline and pay their own way in a 'name' university.

Yet how realistically can NUS and the rest make the ranks of the best when they cannot just cream off the top, but have to cater to the general population? Oxbridge and America's top 15 are great because they take only exceptional, motivated people from the world over. Local universities are working hard to achieve a status of note, within the confines of having to educate the broad band of eligible students. There certainly is more competition than even a decade ago. This will provide the spark. The new Singapore University of Technology and Design, which will have a small enrolment, could add to the ferment.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.