Orient Magazine Issue 71 - April 2019 | Page 60

Orient - The Official Magazine of the British Chamber of Commerce Singapore - Issue 71 April 2019

The Importance of Education:
Profile and Opportunities
in Singapore

By Shabir Aslam, Director of Education,
British Council Singapore

The starting point for many conversations on the future
of work begin with looking at the future of education
and learning and how education will support the
future work landscape.

Research and innovations cannot be separated from their beginnings as academic concepts with academic institutes, particularly in Singapore, often at the forefront of critical ideas that could and would change the nature of future working environments.

Education is Singapore is and has always been a government priority, 2nd only in budget spend to Defence. The UK has a good position in Singapore taking advantage of a high-quality education sector in which our top institutes from Schools to Universities perform well. Opportunities for the UK predominately exist in the Higher Education space, but this should not discount the market for opportunity for UK’s schools and the vocational and training sector.

British Council’s education work in Singapore advises and leads on market strategies and market intelligence particularly for UK Institutes wishing to enter into the market. British Council’s role includes the development and maintaining of relationships with key stakeholders such as the Ministry of Education, local Universities/Polytechnics and Schools and other organisations working towards the shared promotion of UK Education interests and opportunities in Singapore, which would include the British Chamber of Commerce and the Department for International Trade (DIT). One of the key responsibilities for the British Council is to identify market opportunities which would include research partnerships and collaborations, collaborative provision and trans-national Education partnerships, and ensuring we provide the advice/channels/strategies to enable the UK to maintain it’s market share of the overseas student recruitment and trans-national education markets in Singapore.

For Higher Education, the UK is still the preferred choice for Singaporeans wishing to study overseas with around 8000 Singaporeans studying in the UK in 2017 (HESA). UK universities are still seen as a preferred choice for quality programmes and career progression.
The market also remains strong for the UK when looking at transnational education (TNE). The number of students studying for UK qualifications in Singapore is nearly 50,000, making Singapore the third largest market for UK TNE offers anywhere in the world. In relation to this, there are over 50 UK universities delivering programmes in partnership with local providers in Singapore.

UK Schools and Schools delivering UK based curriculum are doing extremely well with Dulwich College (Singapore), Tanglin Trust School and Dover Court International School amongst the institutes leading the way, whilst not forgetting that the United World College South East Asia was the second institute to become part of the United World College movement which began in the UK in 1962. The North London Collegiate School will launch in Singapore in April this year with enrolments due to begin in 2020.

Singapore’s education system is becoming more and more cited as an exemplar model around the world. Singapore is top of the PISA rankings for Science and Maths, with the UK’s Department of Education adopting Singapore Maths in many Schools in England and Wales. Singapore has 2 Universities in the top 15 of the QS world rankings. Singapore’s local education context is a competitive and