Saturday, April 04, 2015

Education standards in Singapore universities going up again




In Singapore, you pay a price for quality. And anything that is good is expensive, priced according its quality. The SMRT is one of the best in the world. And it is so good that it is raising its fares again to match its quality of service. Fares will go up on 5 Apr 15.

Yesterday it was also announced that all the universities will be raising their fees again for the next academic year. So if you put one and one together, the quality of our universities will go up again. You pay for quality. The quality is in the price you pay. The increases range from 1% to 8% depending on the courses and the institutions. This must be good news for the students eyeing for a world class university education in Singapore. The rankings of these universities will definitely notch up a few more rungs. At the rate they are raising the quality of university education by raising the fees respectively, soon they will be better than Harvard or MIT or Cambridge and Oxford. And of course they will have equally high course fees to match.

But just be careful about job opportunities. It was reported in the media yesterday that 60% of the local professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMET) that lost their jobs could not be reemployed because they lacked the skills set. And they are the products of our world best universities.

And the lack of skills set is not confined to the older graduates from our universities. Fresh graduates also have difficulties finding jobs due to lack of skills set. I quote a comment in a local social media, the TRE,

crush the PAP:
so if PMETs young and old have lack of skills, then what are the polytechnics and SIM, SMU, NTU,NUS teaching in their degree and diploma syllabuses??? all outdated stuff???
its like the educational institutions are still teaching DOS and Word Star and the outside world is using windows 8 and office 2013.
if you are a fresh grad from Poly and NUS and outside interviewers are telling you you lack the relevant skills, then what the f*ck are these educational institutions teaching???
education ministry sleeping and daydreaming still isn’t it??’

I can guarantee the students that the qualities of these universities are definitely world class. But I am not sure world class in what ways. The students must be mentally prepared that getting a degree from these universities does not guarantee them a good job as the experience of the PMETs and the fresh graduates are anything to go by.

My recommendation is to go the neighbouring countries, 3rd World also good, if they want to get the right skills set to be employable. An easier and cheaper way is to buy from the degree mills. Not to worry, many of them are getting good jobs here and doing very well. Everyone is sleeping and no one is checking. Be street smart, get a degree, fake also can, that can get a job, not a world class degree that no employers want or worst, did not teach you the relevant skills set to get a job.

What do you want, a good degree from a world class university that cannot get a job or a fake degree or from an unknown university but can get you a job? It is very easy to con or cheat the talented employers in this 1st World city. They did not know what the hell is going on. They are too busy counting their money. See the ‘Do Not Disturb’ signs on their doors?

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