Via CNA,

Local undergrads reluctant to pursue PhDs, universities to act

SINGAPORE : Many local undergraduates say they are still reluctant to pursue higher degrees despite a recent $500 million grant given by the government to boost academic research.

The number of Singaporeans who are enrolled in PhD programmes at local universities may have almost doubled from 400 to over 700 in the last four years.

But foreigners still form the majority of post graduate students here, with three in four university research scholarship holders being foreigners.

"There is a general perception here that there is less recognition for local researcher even if you graduate from the university. So most of the principal investigators positions at research institutes here are held by foreign researchers and not local researchers," said Tam Wai Leong, a Singaporean post-graduate student.

"A lot of jobs don't actually require PHDs and a lot of them want to start earning money and settle down. We get paid but not as much as if you are working in industries outside," said another Singaporean post-graduate student Cecilia Lee.

"Perhaps they find it less prestigious to do it in a local university compared to other universities," said Singaporean undergraduate Huang Shufen.

To make a career in R&D more attractive for Singaporean students, universities here say they are looking into increasing the stipend and grants for PhD students.

At the same time they are also exposing undergraduate to the excitement of research through compulsory final year projects in many faculties.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) says all its faculties give priority to qualified Singaporeans when it comes to PhD applications.

"We also work with A*Star. They have a pre-graduate award that identifies very good students in their third year and we fund their honours year. (To qualify), you must be a Singaporean or be willing to become a Singaporean," said Barry Halliwell, executive director of Graduate School at NUS.

But while universities are working to attract more Singaporean post-graduate students, they say an ideal local to foreign student ratio will be 50:50, similar to other internationally acclaimed research labs worldwide.

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Forgive me, but when I'm neck-deep in thesis writing and miles behind schedule, "excitement" is not the word that comes to mind. Instead "drivel", "why am I doing this", "I can't believe I wrote that crap", "I'm going to flunk out of university", "I'm going to jail for over-emission of methane (read: bullshit)" are the more common phrases. (If you are my thesis supervisor or co-supervisor, that was a joke. I do that frequently. And yes I will sent some draft chapters over soon.)

In fact, I daresay the compulsory final year research partly explains why there is a dearth of local researchers. Someone should do a poll. Here's some impromptu MSN replies from fellow final years: (some expletives)

"if I do phd, got RA help me to code anot?" - CL, CEC

"cb i go to sleep at 6pm then wake up now is exactly to do hyp.. exciting ki lan jiao" - KS, IS

"knn .. i sibei not excited at all" - JJ, IS

"haa. excitement. nonsense." - JC, IS

"whahahahahhaha!!!!! research go die" - SC, EC

"exciting?! wtf the reporter nv do homewk issit?! rofl. stupid cna" KT, CS

Ok. Back to my daily overdose of excitement.

Filed under: Humour, HYP