Debated in Parliament on 4 Nov 2019.
Mr Ang Wei Neng asked the Minister for Education (a) how many bursaries and scholarships (number and quantum) have been awarded by the respective Autonomous Universities (AU) in the past five years using (i) the endowment fund and/or reserve and (ii) Government funding; and (b) what are the criteria of awarding such bursaries and scholarships.
In Academic Year (AY) 2018, more than 34,000 bursaries and/or scholarships were awarded to full-time Singaporean undergraduate students at the Autonomous Universities (AUs). This has increased significantly from AY2014, when around 21,000 were awarded. Please see Table 1 below.
In FY2018, the Government spent a total of $65 million on bursaries. As announced at the National Day Rally in August 2019, the Government will further enhance bursaries to cover up to 75% of subsidised tuition fees from AY2020 onwards. Government bursaries provide financial support for Singaporean full-time undergraduate students from lower and middle income families with gross monthly household income up to $9,000 or gross monthly household per capita income up to $2,250.
Apart from Government bursaries, the AUs also provide their own financial aid and scholarships, which are funded through AUs' endowment fund returns and reserves. As these are administered by the AUs, the eligibility criteria may also vary. These could include students' family financial circumstances, academic merit, and/or co-curricular performance. The quanta vary, as the award may range from one-off awards to full scholarships. The sizes of AUs' endowment funds are available in their annual reports. In FY2018, the AUs spent $23 million on bursaries alone for Singaporean undergraduates.
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