Bursary Applications Received by Autonomous Universities and Percentage Rejected in Past Five Years

Ms Raeesah Khan asked the Minister for Education (a) in the past five years, how many applications that local autonomous universities have received for the Higher Education Community Bursary and the Higher Education Bursary from full-time and part-time undergraduates; and (b) what is the percentage of rejected applications.

The number of Government bursaries awarded to Singaporean full-time undergraduates and part-time undergraduates from Academic Year (AY) 2015 to AY2019 is shown below. The numbers have increased due to better outreach by the universities and the expanding undergraduate enrolment.

The Government bursaries are available to Singaporean students who meet the income criterion – either gross household income of not more than $9,000, or per capita household income of not more than $2,250. This is estimated to cover up to the 66th percentile of households by household income. All Singaporean students who meet the eligibility criteria will be awarded the bursary, and we do not track the number of rejected applications.