The Bottom Line

I've been reading my friend Kay's blog and the last 2 entries she wrote were very interesting and relevant, which got me thinking. The latest entry was about postgraduate studies and the relevance of local postgraduate qualifications in Singapore. The issue is whether or not, there is a future for you if you have a local postgraduate qualification. She was worried about the threat of "foreign talent" and it's no big secret that the Singapore government clearly favours educated foreigners over educated locals.

Why? I'm not sure, but almost everybody has an opinion. This was the comment I left on her blog:

"I don't believe that postgraduate qualifications garnered from universities outside of Singapore are any better than those from Singapore universities. I think it's a relatively level playing field where all qualifications should be reviewed with equal scrutiny.

I do believe that the Singapore government does idolise foreigners to some degree, believing that they are better than locals or that locals aren't as good as foreigners - just because they're locals. I think this is completely unjustified.

I also believe that in academia, you go wherever the work takes you. If I had a PhD in social marketing (which I will in a few years) I won't get a job in Singapore, because Singapore is rubbish in the social marketing area. I'd look at the UK instead, which has great social marketing institutions.

Over here (in Australia) only 2% of the population have PhDs or are doing a PhD. I'm one of them. I feel a little special and I do feel that in the academic sense, I am better than most. But if I went back to Singapore, I wouldn't feel that way. I feel that the Singapore government will still look at me as a nobody, even though I would have legitimately slogged in the name of research and would ultimately receive a doctoral degree.

Why? Because to the Singapore government, I am a minority nobody who "quit" and left for Australia. It doesn't matter that I only left because the government did not give me the opportunity to pursue a degree locally. They see what they choose to see."

So that's my opinion on how the Singapore government values our education. The majority of people who have been educated in Singapore would not have the opportunity to pursue a tertiary education there because it's so competitive and the standards are so high. It is a fundamental flaw of the education system designed by the government; a significant proportion of Singaporeans will never study in local universities. As a result, some will go overseas instead where admission is so easy, as long as you have the funds for it. But then when you do that, I feel that the Singapore government will vilify you to some degree for having left the country to pursue greener overseas pastures. The individual takes it upon himself to pursue personal growth in another country, because his own country has not provided adequate opportunities to do so, yet the individual is wrong for taking this path. This is what I feel is unjust.

This is my bottom line: Australia has given me more than Singapore has ever offered, and because of that it is not the right of the Singapore government to call me, or anyone else like me, anything that suggests I have turned my back on my own country for no good reason.