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Singapore attracts Chinese STEM students as Western options tighten
A Singapore scholarship programme for incoming Chinese Grade 11 students offers fully funded science and engineering study, with a six-year post graduation work commitment.
South China Morning Post reports that Singapore is increasingly drawing China’s high achieving science and technology students as US China tech competition and tighter immigration policies limit access to several traditional Western study destinations.
The outlet highlights Singapore’s Senior Middle 2 (SM2) scholarship programme, launched in 1997 through a joint initiative between Singapore and China’s ministries of education. The programme recruits second-year high school, Grade 11 students from China to study at the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), with fully funded undergraduate education in science and engineering and living allowances.
In return, recipients must commit to working in Singapore for six years after graduation. The report also notes that Singapore previously ran an SM1 programme, which recruited about 300 top mainland Chinese secondary students each year for high school and junior college in the city state.