unsw

I applied for UNSW too, in september last year. When i reached the fair organised by IDP Australia, UNSW booth was filled with people. However, the booth for their sydney campus only. As for the Asia campus, only 2 to 3 were seen enquiring on the course of studies. The reason was simple for me to apply to the sydney campus and not the singapore campus, the cost and the opportunity to study in an overseas institution.

The cost is of the same as the asia campus, i see value added should i go to australia and study. There, i will gain new insights, perhaps opportunities that can't be found in Singapore. Though foreigners may prefer coming to Singapore for its bilingual or bicultural expierences, but as i am born here, i do not value it as much as gaining exposure in another country. I have this notion that if i mix too much with my fellow people, i will be sterotyping alot of stuffs. Therefore, going overseas will be like a fresh breath of air sniffed.

It kind of sad that UNSW flopped barely months after it started. As to how much damage it inflicted to both the university and Singapore, i would say more on the university. In a newspaper article, it says that the new vice chancellor wants to focus more on research and therefore, axed many of its non academic staff. In research, one has to constantly pick himself up after failure and also be determined no matter how ardous or tedious the task may become. The insignificant enrollment for its pioneer batch is just a minor setback. Which business doesn't need months to break even? Giving it up when it doesn't even try hard give me the impression that the university isn't ready nor have the stamina for long haul research which rewards can only be evident in years or even decades.

For Singapore, this is definitely a setback for the vision and aim to be a world class educational hub. People do not remember how successful you are but should you fail, that one failure will be forever etech in people's mind. This is definitely not just a blip but should be asked some real deep questions. Are the government set too high a standard which it may be doing so in order to give a good value for taxpayers' money. Secondly, why the government doesn't seems to enthusiastic in defending the move of letting unsw go? Most importantly, is it the case of trying to sink into oblivion once things go awry? I remembered once we were trying to set up some techo -IT centre or something, but after the dot com bubble burst, none was heard from it.

If unsw is an insolated case, then at least we can seek consolation in it. However what if the pertinent flaw is the negotiation and the projecting of figures that lead to the miscalculation of such ventures? Is it because our officers from EDB are a bunch of quitters that didn't aggressively seeking a compromise with the unsw officials or that our EDB people are forever rigid in not making any compromise? Or is it a case of government scholars miscalculated the projected number of students or returns and end up with an unrealistic figures that ended up in a doom venture? This is of the most concern because these are fundamental flaws. I shudder to think that our Integrated resorts or F1 would end up in such a way as of unsw.

Lastly, my consolation to the students. But a word of advice: go to australia for that different perspective.

(by the way, i was accepted but i rejected the offer of going to sydney as they didn't offer me golden jubilee and so, my finance couldn't make it)