New study horizons: Why more Singapore students are skipping Britain, US and Australia

SINGAPORE – For decades, Britain, the United States and Australia have been the dominant destinations for Singaporeans looking to study abroad.

However, this trend is shifting as more students explore alternative countries to do their degrees. 

While student numbers in these traditional destinations have plateaued or declined, data collected by The Straits Times from more than 20 education statistics organisations worldwide shows a growing number of Singaporeans are enrolling in universities in the Netherlands, Germany, France and Japan.

What guides this gravitation, say students, is a combination of cost and post-graduation prospects.

Meanwhile, the traditional big three study destinations – Australia, Britain and the US – have seen flat or declining Singaporean university entrants over the past decade.

Despite rising affluence here, the number of Singaporean degree seekers in Australia dropped from 8,406 in 2013 to 5,896 in 2024, according to Australia’s Department of Education.

In the UK, this number fell from 7,320 in 2014 to 6,215 in 2021, the most recent year with available data from the UK’s Higher Education Statistics Authority.

Similarly, Singaporean student enrolment in the US declined from 3,804 in 2013 to 3,183 in 2022, according to IIE Open Doors data.

New Zealand saw student numbers fall from 455 to 350 between 2013 and 2022. Meanwhile, Ireland had a slight increase in students, from 260 to 270 in the same period, but it is still a drop from a peak of 530 in 2018.

Canada bucks the downward trend among anglophone countries. The number of Singaporean degree seekers there inched up from 225 in 2013 to 320 in 2023.

The decrease is to be expected, due to the Covid-19 pandemic impacting international travel and Singapore’s plummeting birthrate. The Republic had 48,635 live births in 1995, compared with 37,492 live births in 2005, the corresponding birth years of an 18-year-old Singaporean entering university in 2013 and 2023 respectively.

With the total fertility rate fallen to a low of 0.97 in 2023, Singaporean student numbers are likely to continue decreasing across the board.

However, a few countries stand out for growing their share of Singaporean students.

The Netherlands, Germany, France and Japan, according to nationally collated figures from their respective education agencies, have seen proportionately large increases in their Singapore student numbers.

Singaporean student numbers in the Netherlands more than doubled from 46 in 2013 to 109 in 2022, the latest year data was available. In Germany, this figure climbed from 261 to 356, while France saw its Singaporean enrolments increase from 117 to 199 over the same period. Meanwhile, Japan’s 209-strong Singaporean student population in 2013 grew to 287 in 2022.

Other countries – South Korea, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland – also had slight increases, with data pointing to a growing number of Singaporeans opting to study in different shores.

Cost of studying abroad

Cost is a key reason behind this trend. Mr Ng Qian Xing, 26, says that like most Singaporeans looking to study abroad, he first looked at Britain and Australia, before landing on Japan’s Waseda University.

The second-year physics undergraduate – whose programme in Tokyo is taught in English – says the decision was easy after doing the sums. 

He estimates that the full cost of tuition and living expenses over four years in Tokyo is easily less than half of what it would have cost to study the equivalent programme at King’s College London.

The Ngee Ann Polytechnic alumnus calculates the annual cost of tuition in Britain to be £22,500 (S$38,600), more than double of Waseda University’s, which costs 1,584,000 yen (S$14,200). The cost of living is also lower in Tokyo, he says, adding that he rents a one-bedroom apartment near campus for $1,400 a month.

Across the board, tuition fees in anglophone countries tend to be higher than those in non-anglophone destinations. This is partly due to the reliance on international student fees as a revenue source in places like Britain and Australia.

In 2021, international student fees accounted for one-fifth of British universities’ income, according to its Higher Education Statistics Authority.

Similarly, in Australia, A$8.5 billion (S$7.5 billion) of the A$34.7 billion revenue that universities received came from international students. The country’s dependence on foreign enrolments led the head of Australia’s National Tertiary Education Union Alison Barnes to say in August that international students are being seen as cash cows by universities.

In contrast, fee affordability is a draw in countries like France and Germany because public subsidies are extended to foreign students. Tuition fees for Singaporean undergraduates at public universities in France add up to about €2,770 (S$4,000) yearly, thanks to government subsidies, while Germany’s public universities typically do not charge tuition fees.

Dr Guido Schneiders, director of the regional office of the German Academic Exchange Service, cites this affordability and the rise of more than 2,000 English-taught programmes as likely reasons for the growing number of Singaporean students in Germany.

He adds that despite Germany’s reputation for engineering, only 24 per cent of these students are pursuing degrees on the subject.

Ms Rim Meliani, press attache at the French Embassy in Singapore, highlights the cost of living as another significant draw. She says: “Cost of living in France, even in Paris, is lower than in Singapore, and international students can benefit from financial aid, such as housing subsidies and discounted transportation.”

She also notes that France now offers 1,746 English-taught programmes.

A spokesperson from the Japanese embassy in the Republic attributes the rising interest from Singaporeans to Japan’s growing internationalisation efforts in the university sector, high public safety and the recent depreciation of the yen.

The spokesperson notes that Japan is expanding the availability of joint and double degree programmes, and increasing the number of universities where courses can be taken in English.

Students who spoke to ST say that in Japan and South Korea, the prevalence and accessibility of scholarships from the local government and universities, to reward academic achievement or draw more foreign enrolments, translate to additional cost savings, on top of reasonable fees.

Singaporean Calista Ng, 25, a fresh graduate from Seoul’s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, estimates that her tuition fees amounted to about $8,000 a year. This was further reduced by partial or full merit scholarships she received in some semesters.

Drawing the lines

The heavy reliance on international enrolments in some anglophone countries has sparked domestic backlash, leading to increased pressure on lawmakers to reduce foreign student numbers.

In Australia, international student visa fees more than doubled to A$1,600 in July as part of efforts to curb inflows amid a national housing shortage. The British government announced in May that it was considering further restrictions on student visas, including a review of post-study work rights.

Canada introduced a new cap on student visas in January, which is set to reduce the number of visas issued by 35 per cent compared with 2023.

For Singaporean Matthew Soh, a 23-year-old psychology student at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, these measures create cause for concern.

“I do feel like the government needs to be really careful with how it moves forward with clamping down on the number of international students in Canada,” says Mr Soh, a St Joseph’s Institution International alumnus who is the co-president of the Singapore Students’ Association at his university.

Vancouver’s uniqueness lies in its multiculturalism and the ease at which people of different cultures and ethnic groups assimilate, he adds, and international students form an essential part of this social fabric.

Mr Soh’s student association, which has about 100 members, regularly organises events which create a sense of home among Singaporean students.

Despite the recent policy changes, he notes that the quality of student life remains largely unaffected. However, he has observed that some of his younger peers are facing greater challenges in securing admission to Canadian universities.

Longer-term prospects matter too

While affordability is a key consideration, students say that the lower price tag is only one part of the equation when choosing alternative study destinations.

Take Ms Stella Darmawan, 28, for example. Although both her sisters decided to study abroad in the US and Canada, she pursued a double degree in political science and economics co-taught by Sciences Po in Paris, France, and Keio University in Minato, Japan, which was primarily taught in English.

Ms Darmawan, who graduated in 2018, estimates that her tuition fees cost $10,000 to $14,500 a year, depending on the country she was based in.

Though the affordability of her double degree clinched the deal, she says that one of the greatest benefits of studying in such a culturally different place was an intangible one. “Most of my friends who went to the UK, US and Australia, they come back almost the same as they were, but I was a really different person after my studies.”

France, Japan and Switzerland are places with unique cultures that demand greater levels of assimilation, where true immersion means opening up to strangers in different languages and adapting to a different pace of life.

“In anglophone countries, everyone has similar goals – to get a good job after graduation, earn money and buy a house. In Europe, people prioritise work-life balance,” she says.

She now lives in Switzerland, where she is completing her master’s in economics and management at the University of Zurich. The mother of one plans on working in Switzerland, where her Swiss husband is based, upon graduation, as she values its more relaxed approach to education and sees it as a good place to raise kids.

What the economics graduate laments is Singaporean employers’ preference for “brand name universities” in the US and Britain. This meant greater difficulty when she was first looking to enter the job market in Singapore between her undergraduate and postgraduate studies.

Anglophone destinations still on top

This was a common experience among students who ventured to destinations outside the anglophone world, which lack name recognition in Singapore. This is perhaps why Australia and Britain continue to dominate as preferred choices for Singaporean students.

According to Unesco data from 2021, nearly eight out of 10 Singaporean students studying abroad still choose these anglophone countries, along with the US.

Students who spoke to ST cited several reasons for sticking with the tried and tested – ease of communication in English, strong name recognition of universities and the presence of large Singaporean communities that provide a sense of familiarity and support.

Ms Gladys Yeo, 24, a fifth-year media and arts student at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, says that despite the Australian government’s recent clampdown on student visas, she intends to work there post-graduation.

“Friendliness and a slower pace of life are definitely things I associate with Australia,” says Ms Yeo, who values the society’s emphasis on mental health and work-life balance.

She is less daunted by changes in Australia’s migration policies than the state of the job market there. “Even now, as I look for casual or part-time jobs, a lot of them are specifically excluding student visa holders, even though the hours the job requires are well within the range we are legally permitted to work,” she says.

“It’s very frustrating because I really do see a future for myself in Australia, and would hate to have to let it go because employers aren’t even willing to consider me for jobs that I am fully and sometimes even over-qualified for.”

In Britain, Mr Priyankar Kandarpa, 23, chose to pursue his undergraduate degree in history and politics at the University of Oxford, after considering options in Europe.

He attributes his decision to social pressure, testimonials from peers and “a fear of trying something new”. Add to that Britain’s large Singaporean community and existing family and friends living there, and the country seemed an obvious choice.

“It was a safer bet because it was more ‘tested’, in that I knew family and friends who went there,” says the former NPS International School student. However, he is now considering more diverse options for postgraduate studies, including universities in the Netherlands, Switzerland and France he earlier considered but did not pursue.

For Dr Asten Yeo, 27, who graduated from Trinity College Dublin’s medical school in 2023, his decision was mainly about preserving his post-graduation prospects. Now a doctor at the University Hospital Waterford in south-east Ireland, he wants to keep the option of moving back to Singapore on the table.

With medicine in mind, his options for where he could study felt limited from the get-go – to anglophone countries with universities that were recognisable to Singaporeans he might one day work with.

“If I were to tell people in Singapore that I studied in Ireland, and they were well versed in my field, many would instantly know which university I went to,” he says.

Picking a university that is a “household name” for Singaporeans in his field is something he believes will make a difference when seeking to transition back to Singapore. “That’s why I think going for a university that is well known and holds some kind of weight here is important,” he says.

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