Lawrence Wong said that only 15 per cent of the overall student population in each campus reserved for foreigners. Really?

Askmelah Note: I am highly skeptical about the following statement from Lawrence Wong. With the exception of SMU, walk around the campus of NTU and NUS, you will see that it is filled with many foreigners with vast majority coming from China, so much so that many campus canteens now have dedicated local food catered to mainland Chinese students. What is being left unsaid is:

1) many phd students are fully sponsored by taxpayers’ monies without bonds, and a significant if not vast majority are foreigners;

2) the 15% probably does not include many foreigners whose parents are PRs and thus their kids are technically foreigners but considered as local because of PR status;

3) Is there a separate tracks where scholarships are given to bright foreigner students (Vastly from China, and a smaller proportion from India and Asean) which are not included in the 15% calculation? They are adding to the diversity as claimed is a practice by Lawrence Wong, No? How big is this group of students?

Actual quote from Todayonline where Lawrence Wong clarified that local and foreign students are on different admission tracks (may be an easier track for foreigners?):

“All the universities have a separate track to take in international students because they want to add diversity into their student population. They think it’s a good idea to allow their own students international exposure and they want that to add vibrancy into their campuses.

Foreign students take up 10 to 20 per cent of the cohort at universities in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States, and Singapore has also kept the proportion to about 15 per cent of the overall student population in each campus. “