NUS opens office to attract more students

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)