LookAtVietnam – Singapore is looking to an increase of 10-15% in the number of students from Vietnam, a key education market for Singapore, this year, according to a senior representative of the island country.

He said Vietnam was a major market that has contributed a great part to the number of more than 86,000 international students studying at different colleges and universities in Singapore.

A news report posted on the website of Dat Viet newspaper at www.baodatviet.vn on March 10, 2008 put the number of Vietnamese students in Singapore at around 3,000.

“China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, South Korea and Vietnam are key markets that contribute to the overall international student population,” Ong told the Daily on the sidelines of the Singapore Education Specialist training course organized by STB’s Education Services Division in HCMC on Monday.

The top sources of information for students to find out about studying in Singapore included STB’s website at www.singaporeedu.gov.sg, he said. “STB also understands that there is a need for the development of an information platform where it is easy for individuals to meet face to face, hence the role of Singapore education specialists.”

There are already more than 200 Singapore Education Specialists in 11 countries including 41 in Vietnam. Some 100 candidate specialists in Vietnam are attending the training course in different regions to get a certificate of recognition.

After finishing the course, the specialists will receive the certificate which allows them to participate in the education events hosted by the Singapore Education Services Division in addition to the support materials and information updates they receives.

The top specialists are further awarded the Best SES (Singapore Education Specialist) award at the annual Singapore Education Awards held in the island country.

Such a course will take place in the central coastal city of Danang today and Hanoi on Wednesday. “This is the fifth year that STB is organizing the training course in Vietnam as part of our efforts to develop trusted sources of information for parents and students,” Ong said.

Ong added this was the first training course in Danang as “we anticipate greater interest in Singaporean education given the direct flights from Singapore to Danang by Silk Air.”

Ong said he believed more Vietnamese parents would send their children to Singapore for study because of transport convenience as there are currently 94 weekly flights between the two countries, reasonable tuition fees and the opportunity for the graduates to work at international companies.

Ong estimated the annual tuition fees at international-standard universities in Singapore ranged from more than S$6,700 to less than S$10,000. Students also get paid during their internship at companies in Singapore.

Asked about more international universities from Australia, Canada, the United States and other countries coming to attract Vietnamese students, Ong said this would give local students more chances to compare tuition levels and more choice of the school they wanted.

VietNamNet/SGT