SINGAPORE — The overwhelming majority of Singaporeans pursuing their studies abroad do so in one of three countries: the US, Britain and Australia. ALSO READ: 'Too much structure and comfort at home': Gen Zers aspire to work and live abroad, not just study This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
Off the beaten path: More Singaporeans heading to Japan, Germany, the Netherlands for further studiesPHOTO: Courtesy of Pek Siying, Brian WongSINGAPORE — The overwhelming majority of Singaporeans pursuing their studies abroad do so in one of three countries: the US, Britain and Australia.
In Germany, that figure increased from 167 in 2013 to 266 in 2022, according to the German Academic Exchange Service. For instance, tuition fees for international students in the Netherlands typically range between €9,000 and €20,000 a year. Students who spoke to The Straits Times say the relatively lower fees to study in the Netherlands, Germany and Japan give them a chance to spread their wings and live on their own without compromising on the quality of their degree, when they might otherwise not be able to afford to study overseas.Ruth Luk, 28, moved to the Netherlands in 2021 to pursue a bachelor's degree in business at Tilburg University in North Brabant.
She is glad for her choice, as the higher fees and living costs in the big three study destinations would have meant being saddled with "a more crippling" debt upon graduation. Pek Siying, a 21-year-old pursuing a medical degree in Heidelberg, Germany, says: "Studying at a university here was probably my best shot at trying to adult."
For example, University of Bristol has 250 Singaporean students enrolled now, while University College London has 669. Pek, who had set her sights on a career in the life sciences since she was in Secondary 4, decided on Heidelberg University because of its stellar medical faculty. "Applying for medicine locally was too competitive, and I wasn't successful," she says.
Holidays to Japan left him impressed by the country's history and cultural traditions, so he spent his national service years learning Japanese through language-learning apps which connected him with other Japanese speakers. "I've made a lot of Japanese friends, and if I moved back to Singapore, it would feel like I'm leaving behind half of myself," he says.
She says the Netherlands is the place she calls home for now because it has what she finds lacking in Singapore, namely work-life balance and the ability to collect international experiences. This scarcity of Singaporean compatriots means having to go it alone when dealing with culture shock. Besides a year spent at a language school in Berlin, he began studying German on his own during NS. Still, when he first moved there, Hannan recalls having to ask locals if they spoke English.
Meanwhile, Sabrina, who moved to Japan with only an elementary grasp of Japanese, credits the immersion with getting her to her current level of fluency — the second-highest of Japan's five-point scale of language proficiency.
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