NUS opens office to attract more students

JAKARTA (JP): The National University of Singapore (NUS) has opened its first representative office here to keep apace with increasing Indonesian enrollment at the institution.

Singaporean Ambassador Edward Lee officiated at Friday's inauguration ceremony at the Artha Graha building in Central Jakarta.

NUS' dean of admissions Andrew Y.C. Nee said the university considered it important to open the representative office due to growing demand.

"Last year, we only had 80 to 90 Indonesian students. This year the figure has reached 196," he said.

"By opening our representative office here, it will be easier for Indonesians to arrange their administrative affairs. They no longer need to send administrative documents to Singapore, for instance."

He expected Indonesian enrollment would reach about 300 next year.

"We have lower tuition compared to universities in other countries. International students at NUS only pay 10 percent higher than Singaporeans, while in other countries it could be eight to 10 times."

He said international students were also offered a student loan scheme of up to 80 percent of the S$13,000 annual tuition which can be returned over 20 years.

Nee said NUS prepared 20 percent of its 26,800 graduate and undergraduate students in line with requirements for continuing their studies at international universities.

NUS currently has 500 international students, 60 percent of whom are Malaysian, he said.

Established in 1980, NUS was a merger between the University of Singapore and Nanyang University. It has 54 academic departments under nine schools on its 150-hectare campus.

NUS' office representative for Indonesia, Dyah Oetari, said the number of Indonesians seeking information about the school was relatively large, with four to five inquiries daily.

"I think that due to the economic crisis, there are more and more Indonesians tending to study in Singapore," she said. (ind)