Welcome to Asia's new education hub: Singapore

Aspiring students, you do not need to go to Connecticut to attend Yale University. You could instead become a Yale alumni in neighbouring city-state Singapore instead. Yes, the prestigious US university will soon join a number of sought-after universities such as University of Glasgow, University College London and Manchester, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford research to have an offshore campus in Singapore, which is fast becoming a preferred international destination for Indian students, reports Business Standard.

Singapore hosts more than 70,000 international students, the report said, of which about 3,000 are Indian. Even as other countries like the UK report a drop in Indian student enrollments, the number of Indian students heading to the Asian nation is growing by a healthy 20 percent every year.

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[caption id=“attachment_335210” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Close to 70,000 international students, 3000 of which are Indian move to Singapore for higher studies. Reuters”]  [/caption]

So why is Singapore such a hot destination for Indians? Well, proximity to India seems to be one clear reason. Easy availability of scholarships and the possibility of international exposure are other cited reasons.

Of course, despite the recent rush, it must be noted that Singapore is not a cheap city to live in. According to a list compiled by Mercer Consulting in 2011,Singapore ranked as the 8th most expensive city to in the world.

And the rupee’s recent sharp depreciation only makes Singapore even more expensive.The rupee has slumped to 43 against the Singaporean dollar, down from 35-36 last year, which has increased the overall cost of studying in Singapore.

Yet, despite that, the relatively lower costs over other destinations like the US or UK are likely to keep the Asian nation on top of students looking to study abroad.