SINGAPORE: Bursaries for undergraduates in the highest income tier will not be topped up as the current bursaries are adequate, said Second Minister for Education Indranee Rajah on Monday (Aug 26).
Students from families in the highest income tier - whose gross household income is between S$6,901 and S$9,000 - currently receive S$1,350 in undergraduate bursaries.
AdvertisementAdvertisementPrime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had announced during this year's National Day Rally that lower-income undergraduates and polytechnic students will pay reduced school fees with enhanced bursaries.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) released the details of these enhanced bursaries last Thursday, with about 55,000 students expected to benefit.
[h=3]READ: 55,000 tertiary students to get enhanced bursaries, some up to 95%: MOE[/h]Speaking on News 5, Ms Indranee explained the disparity between enhancing bursaries for polytechnic students with gross household incomes up to S$9,000 and for undergraduates with gross household incomes of S$6,900 and under, but not for those above.
AdvertisementAdvertisement"For universities, you can see that for the first few tiers, actually the increase that we gave was quite a bit. That is because the current bursaries, we felt, were not adequate," said Ms Indranee.
“When you look at the top tier, we felt that the current bursary was actually adequate for that income group. So that’s why there was no increase for that one.
“But for the other tiers, because we felt that the current bursary didn’t provide as much assistance as would be necessary for those groups, that’s why we topped it up.”
Undergraduates from families earning S$6,900 or less can expect to benefit from the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) enhanced bursary scheme.
According to MOE, these enhanced bursaries will be expected to cover up to 75 per cent of general degree fees for undergraduates and 95 per cent of school fees for polytechnic students.
With these enhanced bursaries, the Government is hopeful that more students from lower-income households will apply for university courses and polytechnic courses, the minister added.
ADJUSTING FEES AT OTHER UNIVERSITIES
Students at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) will see their fees lowered. Currently, the cost for a general course is S$7,860 at SUSS and S$8,190 at SIT, and both fees will be revised to S$7,500.
In response to whether the Government would consider adjusting fees at the other universities, Ms Indranee said: “The two newer autonomous universities, that’s SIT and SUSS – when they first started out they had smaller cohort sizes, which means that the cost per head is higher.
“But now, as they’ve been more established, they’re having more students, which means that you can bring the cost down.
“And what we’re trying to do is to make sure that their costs are in line with the other universities.”
SPENDING CUTS ELSEWHERE?
Ms Indranee also noted that the Government “should be able to accommodate the enhanced bursaries without any issue”.
Estimates by MOE indicate that it the enhanced bursaries will cost an additional S$44 million.
“If you’re concerned that oh, because we’re going to have to spend S$44 million in bursaries, does that mean we have to take away S$44 million from elsewhere – I think the answer is, you can’t quite approach it like that,” she said.
Ms Indranee added that after merging some Junior Colleges previously, there would be “less cost there than in the past”.
"So you've basically got to add up everything."
She added: “Whatever it is, this Government’s commitment is to make sure that for education, we will continue to make sure that nobody gets left behind and that we will provide what is needed for our population."
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