Almost half of university graduates earned their degrees abroad: report

The number of domestic graduates is deceptively small.

Although Singapore is already home to two of Asia’s top-ranked universities, a large number of local students still opt to move overseas in order to receive their degrees from foreign institutions.

BMI Research highlighted in a report a staggering 41% of Singaporeans who received degrees in 2013 finished tertiary schooling overseas.

This results in a “deceptively small” pool of domestic graduates, the report said.

The desire for overseas education appears to be deeply rooted among Singaporean families. In a recent survey, HSBC revealed that more than four in five or 81% of parents would consider sending their child abroad to university, for either undergraduate or postgraduate study.

This rises to nearly 90% of parents in households with a gross annual income of at least SGD120,000, compared to just 77% of parents with a household income of less than SGD120,000.

“Parents see important experiences to be gained by students who take advantage of this increased opportunity to study at university abroad,” HSBC said, with 83% of parents willing to pay more than it would cost to educate their child in Singapore.