Winning Partnerships

This is another article which I got from the Blackboard website. It talked about three PEOs in Singapore: Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) group, Ngee Ann Education Group and TMC Education Group.

I think that, while people have a lot more choices of universities than before, it becomes much more difficult to make a decision. Opportunities costs are much higher, having to choose one over the others, especially those that are more “obscure” and little marketing.

We want a “famous” or at least a credible university degree on our resume. It makes no sense if no employers can recognize our status as a Degree holder and doubt our academic qualifications. The value of the degree and the school’s brand name are supposed to indicate that we had attained a certain level of knowledge.

I am not aware of all the degrees or universities available in Singapore itself; probably due to my ignorance and their lack of public and media exposure.

It seems to me that being in the PEO market is very lucrative. Many Australia universities appear to be flocking here to form partnerships. I wonder if the school fees will drop since the current Australia exchange rate is dropping. Stay abreast of the developments in Australia, especially their schools. :-)

Aggarwal, N. (2008). Winning Partnerships. SE-Blackboard: News Highlight. 02 September 2008 [Online]. available from https://www.se-blackboard.com/news_oct08_007.aspx (accessed 6 March 2009).

SCHOOL leavers and those who wish to upgrade their skills and knowledge now have new opportunities to move up the learning ladder. They can go through the private educational organisations which work with foreign partners to offer a wide variety of courses and programmes to meet market needs.

These local Private Educational Organisations (PEOs) have tied up with overseas partners to offer degree, diploma and certificate courses, some of which are focused and prepare the students for specific jobs with rewarding careers.

One such not-for-profit organisation at the forefront of providing learning opportunities is the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) group, which includes the SIM University, SIM Global Education and SIM Professional Development.

While the SIM University (UniSIM) offers more structured degree courses as a full-fledged degree awarding institution, SIM Global Education has a wider range of offerings through its collaboration with many overseas partners. The SIM Global Education offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes with 11 university partners and has about 16,000 students, of which 10,000 are full-time students and the rest, part-time.

UniSIM, it has about 8,000 students and among its university partners are the Beijing Normal University and Cranfield University for its undergraduate and master’s programmes respectively. It also partners overseas universities such as the Beijing Foreign Studies University, Athabasca University, the Open University of Hong Kong and the Open University of United Kingdom for other academic collaborations and research work.

SIM Global Education’s chief executive officer, Mr Lee Kwok Cheong, says that the programmes offered by it are popular with both locals and foreigners, with a quarter of the 10,000 full-time students being international students. While most of the foreign students are from Indonesia (39 per cent) and China (20 per cent), others hail from as far away as Mongolia.

“We want our students to have a real international experience. While we want to serve Singaporean students’ needs, we also want to create a real international experience for our foreign students,” he stresses.

SIM Global Education has a very international model. “We want to be the best. We believe in adding value to the whole education landscape,” says Mr Lee, who courts global universities and other key institutions to bring their programmes here.

One such institution is the Swiss-based International Hotel Management Institute (IMI). Mr Lee recalls that IMI was initially reluctant because it was not familiar with SIM. He persisted and cultivated IMI as he felt its programmes would be good for Singaporeans. Mr Lee has been proven right. SIM’s first intake of 22 students graduated in June this year. Four of the five first-class honours awards by IMI this year were clinched by SIM students. Now IMI is keen to build its relationship with SIM, having seen the commitment and performance of the students. The second intake has attracted 26 students.

The SIM-IMI programme offers three choices and is awarded by IMI and Manchester Metropolitan University. Students enrolled in the programme spend six months in Singapore and six months onsite at IMI in Lucerne, Switzerland. Course fees are about half of what students would pay if they study full-time at IMI.

Another private education provider, Ngee Ann Education Holdings, says it chose Australia’s University of Adelaide as its partner as many of Singapore’s brightest and best studied there.

Ngee Ann Education Holdings, which is a subsidiary of the Ngee Ann Kongsi foundation, formed a 50:50 joint venture with the Australian university to establish the University of Adelaide Ngee Ann – Singapore campus as the gateway to globalisation for the university and the regional centre of excellence in post-graduate and professional education.

“Students studying in the Singapore campus can be assured of the level of academic and service quality in their learning experience with us,” says its general manager Ms Lim Mei Mei. This is because the University of Adelaide is responsible for the compliance with academic policies and procedures in each programme offered in Singapore. All the 520 students enrolled here are adult learners. The aim is to double enrolment by 2010.

The MBA programme, which is most popular at the school, had attracted 350 students. The opportunity for “cross” enrolment in electives offered in the postgraduate programmes offers the student the option of a broader learning scope, says Ms Lim. For instance, an MBA student may opt for a course offered in the Master of Applied Finance or Master of Project Management programmes.

Similarly, the TMC Education Group entered into a partnership with Australia’s Deakin University, which is renowned for its business courses. A good example is the offering of the Deakin MBA and MBA (International) programmes.

After a series of successful MBA runs (designed for graduates with at least two years of working experience), TMC noted that there was a demand for the course from fresh graduates with no working experience. Responding to market demand, Deakin MBA (International) was developed and offered through TMC to the Singapore and regional market.

The Boom of the Private Institutions in Singapore

I thought that this communication channel, Blackboard, is another good source of relevant information for those researching on the private universities in Singapore.

It was rather hard to find through the search engines and most of us are unaware of it (I was referred to it by my teacher). By putting this link on my blog, other people will find it easier to  follow the latest developments to the education scene here.

Below is the full article which I copied from the mentioned source:

The Boom of the Private Institutions in Singapore (2008). Blackboard: The Singapore Education Industry Newsletter. [Online]. Available from:  https://www.se-blackboard.com/focus_oct08_s2.aspx. Accessed: 8 January 2008.

(Hopefully, I would not be sued or run into trouble for plagiarism of material. Disclaimer: I’ll will take this down upon request from the administrator of BLACKBOARD and Singapore Tourism Board (STB) over copyright issues.)

The PSB Academy Campus at Tiong Bahru will allow the school to increase its full-time student population from 1,000 to 3,000 by 2009.

In Singapore, there is a veritable boom among local private institutions offering quality western tertiary education.

In May 2007, PSB Academy, one of Singapore’s private schools, had to open another new campus to house its growing student body. The new S$10 million campus at Tiong Bahru will allow the school to increase its full-time student population from 1,000 to 3,000 by 2009.

Similarly bursting at the seams is James Cook University (JCU), Singapore. Five years ago, the university opened its teaching doors in the republic with just 50 students. Today, its student number has swelled to 1,200 – too big a population for its original premises in Bukit Merah, where it occupied six floors of the SPRING Singapore building. In July, the university moved to a new 18,500 square metre campus costing S$5 million at Upper Thomson Road that offers students more spacious teaching rooms, as well as sports facilities. The university is confident of growing its enrolment – it expects to have 3,500 students by 2012.

These institutions are among the growing number of private education organisations (PEOs) on the island that are successfully capturing a big slice of a high-growth market – the market made up of Asian students seeking superior Western education.

Why Private Institutions Are Thriving In Singapore

A Singapore education allows international students to meet people from all over the world for excellent networking opportunities, establishing regional networks and friendships.

There are several compelling reasons why Singapore is winning in the race to lure this segment.

Among them is the proximity of Singapore to their native country, the ease of adapting to the culture here and the opportunity to obtain an education equal in calibre to that obtained in the West at a cost that is much lower. Also, Singapore’s reputation for high standards and reliability serves it well in drawing international students.

Yet the standard of living in Singapore is comparable to that of the West. The streets and subways in Singapore are safe and clean. The multilingual island has a cosmopolitan outlook that welcomes talent from all over the world and that offers opportunities for establishing regional networks and friendships.

The increase in overseas universities school fees in recent years has seen more students making Singapore their education destination. Compared to the tuition fees these overseas universities charge, the cost of between S$20,000 and S$60,000 charged by PEOs over three or four years is a much affordable option for the students.

In addition, some PEOs offer their students a ‘fast track’ route to a degree, lowering the cost even further.

PSB Academy, for instance, offers an Australian engineering qualification from the University of Newcastle that can be obtained in Singapore in just three years of part-time study. It also offers fast-track programmes in public relations and journalism, marketing and management, finance and financial accounting and international business that can be completed within two years.

Established Private Institutions Partnering Brand-name Foreign Universities

Singapore represents one of the largest markets for transnational higher education in the world. Because of that, Singapore has no problem drawing brand-name universities. Australian and British universities, in particular, see Singapore as a very important market.

Private institutions, such as SIM Global Education, Asia Pacific Management Institute (APMI), East Asia Institute of Management (EASB) have taken advantage of this keen interest among foreign universities to forge winning partnerships with the top names in education in the Western hemisphere.

For example, SIM Global Education partners 10 universities, including the University of Buffalo, the University of Warwick and The University of Sydney. The Asia Pacific Management Institute (APMI) run by Kaplan Singapore offers a wide range of programmes ranging from diplomas to postgraduate courses like MBAs, DBAs and PhDs. Its partners include Murdoch University and Monash University. Murdoch University is regarded as an international leader in the study of social, political and economic dynamics in East and Southeast Asia while Monash University was rated the world’s 43 rd best university by The Times Higher Education Supplement in its assessment of the world’s top 200 universities for 2007.

EASB partners Queen Margaret University, which was recently named one of the top 10 modern universities in UK’s Sunday Times Good University Guide. The first UK University to have a campus here in Singapore, Queen Margaret University maintains direct control over the quality of the courses provided in its campus in Singapore, and engages its own faculty while EASB provides marketing and administration.

Said Mr Andrew Chua, the founder and Principal of EASB, of his institute’s partnership with Queen Margaret University, “This combination of Queen Margaret University’s academic excellence and international reputation with EASB’s strength and experience in delivering career-ready graduates for the Asia Pacific region will open up huge opportunities for students from Singapore as well as from China, India and Vietnam. One of its key features will be the bilingual curricula. In the new era of globalisation and the diversity and complexity of the global business market, we are confident that the graduates of these courses will have maximised their competitive advantage for securing the highest quality employment and marketplace competency.”¹

For these private institutions the selling point is essentially the same: partnership with Western universities to offer a quality education through excellent degree programs with superior faculty.

Quality Determines Success

There is no doubt that one reason for Singapore PEOs’ success in drawing tertiary students is the calibre of education they offer. Students are confident that the degree they get in Singapore is equivalent to the same degree obtained in its country of origin.

“Singaporeans as well as foreign students want quality,” explained Murdoch University’s deputy vice-chancellor (Faculty, Enterprise & International) Gary Martin. Murdoch University offers degree programmes at the Singapore Manufacturers’ Federation’s (SMa) School of Management. “Courses delivered at the Singapore centre are the same as courses offered at the Murdoch campuses in Perth. The curriculum on offer is identical and at the completion of studies, the degree is the same as that awarded in Australia.”²

Take the Murdoch Bachelor of Commerce (Professional Accounting) programme at SMa. Despite the fact that it is 100% taught in Singapore, it is delivered by Murdoch University lecturers and its international associate lecturers. The programme can be completed in 16 months in Singapore on a part-time basis and is offered on a modular basis tailored to meet the needs of busy professionals.

Investing To Enhance The Learning Experience

Private institutions invest continually in their education infrastructure such as teaching facilities to ensure that they are meeting the changing demands of industry and the economy.

In 2007, for instance, MDIS established a School of Tourism and Hospitality. Launched to address the growing need for trained and qualified personnel in the booming hospitality industry, the MDIS School of Tourism and Hospitality provides diploma and degree programmes from well-established universities such as the University of Sunderland in the United Kingdom and Southern Cross University in Australia.

The School further invested another quarter of a million dollars on a hospitality training centre to equip students with practical skills related to the hospitality industry.

MDIS Hospitality training centre, Tropical Breeze, provides students with adequate hands-on experiences outside the classroom.

The hospitality training centre, Tropical Breeze, occupies a floor area of 1,400 square feet at MDIS UniCampus. The centre has three main practicums: front office service operation with Micros Fidelio Property Management System, food and beverage service operation with well-equipped bar counter facilities, and housekeeping service operation with a mock-up hotel guest room. The centre trains students on the latest software such as the Micros Fidelio OPERA Property Management System and the Abacus computer reservation system.

Well-endowed Private Campuses Are A Hit

Besides excellent learning facilities such as lecture halls, seminar rooms, libraries, state-of-the-art classrooms, and laboratories, PEOs in Singapore also offer exceptional facilities to support the non-academic development of their students. These facilities are comparable to that of many Western universities, and in some case, even better.

Over at Queen Margaret University Asia Campus, students enrolled at its Asia Campus enjoy facilities equalled to the university’s home campus. The Asian four-storey campus is a serene, 18,000 square metre site equipped with facilities similar to those found at its campus in Britain, with a tennis and three basketball courts, a gymnasium, a fully-equipped library and close to 60 classrooms.

With the growth in demand for quality western education in Asia, PEOs will now have to get their fundamentals right and market themselves dynamically to be able to attract even more international students to make their school the choice for further education in Singapore.

¹ Press Release: Queen Margaret University set to open UK’s first university campus in Singapore (19 Feb 2008 )
² The Straits Time (15 July 2008 ) : Australian universities thriving in Singapore