Local universities to offer 1,000 more places this year

SINGAPORE - The Education Ministry will open up another 1,000 university places this year, bringing the total number of places at the six universities, including the Singapore Institute of Technology and SIM University to 14,000.

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Here is Education minister Heng Swee Keat's Facebook post:

I am happy to announce that the Singapore Institute of Technology Act comes into effect today, and that SIT is now Singapore's newest autonomous university.

Congratulations to SIT! I met some SIT student leaders recently. They were full of pride and excitement over this momentous step for SIT, and I feel the same way. Welcome, SIT, in joining NUS, NTU, SMU and SUTD as Singapore's newest autonomous university. I hope that young Singaporeans will make full use of the new opportunities that open up at SIT.

SIT's new status is part of our efforts to steadily expand higher education opportunities for young Singaporeans. I am glad that in academic year 2014, our publicly-funded universities will be providing 14,000 places for Singaporeans. This is 1,000 more than the 13,000 places in 2012.

These additional places come from an overall expansion of the university sector, with the bulk coming from SIT and the new full-time degree programmes at UniSIM. Each year, we raise the proportion of each cohort who are admitted to our publicly-funded university degree programmes.

This year, by providing up to 14,000 places, 30 per cent of our students can be admitted to publicly-funded degree programmes. This is double that in 1990, and the highest number ever. We had originally aimed to reach this level by 2015, so we are a year ahead of schedule!

One important point - it is not just about numbers, it is about quality. This expansion is done in a careful way, to match students' aptitudes. Even as we create more places, we want our students to be able to meet the rigours of the programmes, and at the same time, to make the best use of opportunities as our economy grows and becomes more diverse.

We are increasing the diversity of our higher education landscape, with new institutions, programmes and teaching approaches. We have a whole range of offerings across many disciplines, from engineering to business, from technology and design to the liberal arts, from the theoretical to the applied.

SIT and UniSIM's new full-time degree programmes are the latest addition to our university offerings, and will integrate classroom learning and application in structured work attachments to better prepare students who enjoy hands-on learning for the challenging careers ahead in the working world.

We will press on to provide publicly-funded university spaces for 40 per cent of every cohort by 2020. Together with an expected increase to about 10 per cent of the cohort receiving degree education through publicly-funded part-time places by 2020, up to half of each cohort could receive a government-subsidised degree education.

It will take hard work from MOE, our universities and our partners, but it is a most worthwhile goal and I look forward to pouring our energies into this.

We will also make sure that Singaporeans who have qualified for a place in our Institutes of Higher Learning will be able to access a post-secondary education even if their families have financial difficulties. Earlier this month, I announced that we are enhancing bursaries for Singaporean students from the lower and middle income households - to reach out to even more students, and to provide a higher bursary amount than before.

About 120,000 Singaporean students stand to benefit from the enhanced bursaries. In some cases, like in ITE, the bursaries will more than cover the fees, and have enough to provide for some daily expenses. In others, the bursaries can cover up to 80 per cent of polytechnic fees for students from lower income groups.

If I may share a piece of advice: when applying for a course, remember that higher education is not about chasing a piece of paper. What is more important is to build deep skills and have the right values that will enable you to succeed in the long haul. Don't go for short-cuts. Put your heart into learning more about yourself and others around you too, to find out your own strengths, to learn the needs and hopes of others around you, and to build up the truly special things that you have to offer the world.

And apart from attending school, there are many ways to build these deep skills, knowledge and values. If the best path for you is to take some time to work and gain experience - do that! And persevere. I recently met a young resident from Tampines. After graduating from the Polytechnic, she landed a job in a marketing company.

She is resourceful - instead of just doing what she was told, she went beyond that and proposed a new idea of expanding the company's business to her boss. The idea worked, and she had a significant pay rise within 6 months. Better still, she was asked to write her own job description!

I think many of you know that SMS Indranee and many colleagues have been working hard on the ASPIRE Committee (ASPIRE stands for "Applied Study in Polytechnics and ITE Review") to expand educational options and pathways.

Our lives take many different paths - my hope is that young Singaporeans will take full advantage of the multiple pathways in our education system, and carve out your own special pathway to fulfilling careers, just as my Tampines resident has done.

I hope young Singaporeans will make the most of these important years to discover and really build up your skills, passion and talents, make lifelong friendships, and prepare yourselves for a dynamic, fulfilling and happy life.