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An update of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings for 2021 ranked the National University of Singapore (NUS) as the sixth most international university in the world, while Nanyang Technological University (NTU) ranks ninth.
What does this mean?
Well, according to THE website, the ranking of the most international universities takes into account the proportion of international students, international staff, journal publications with at least one international co-author, and the international reputation of a university. All these pillars are given equal weight in the calculation of the rankings.
To clarify, a university’s international reputation is the measure of “the proportion of votes from outside the home country that the institution achieved in THE Annual Invitation-Only Academic Reputation Survey,” according to the website.
In 2019, TOC raised concerns about the proportion of international and local students at autonomous universities, such as NUS and NTU. Based on figures from the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) website, a different but equally respected global ranking, it appeared that about 25 percent of NUS places went to international students. QS recorded a similar proportion for NTU.
This year, according to THE data for 2021, about 26 percent of NUS students are international students. THE records the number of full-time equivalent students enrolled at NUS at 30,943.
This is significantly lower than the NUS data which states that the university has enrolled 41,885 students for 2020/2021. That’s 31,760 undergraduate students and 10,125 graduate students. So we already know that there is a slight discrepancy in the number of students.
NUS also does not provide a breakdown of the proportion of international and local students. Although given the above discrepancy, it is possible that the proportion of international students in the university is over 26 percent.
As for NTU, THE records that the university’s student body is 25 percent international students.
Apart from the discrepancy between THE figures and the universities themselves, we also found a discrepancy between the figures given by the government.
Specifically in 2018, the government emphasized that there is no minimum quota for foreign students in Singapore’s autonomous universities. On the Gov.sg website, he stated that “Singapore is not actively courting foreign students to comply with any form of minimum quota.”
The article, which was last updated in March 2018, went on to clarify: “In 2017, when answering a parliamentary question on the percentage of foreigners who attend our public universities, the Minister of Education (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung stated that foreign students account for only about 10% of the total undergraduate admission of universities. This is still the case today. “
The point is, the THE data clearly establishes that, at least for NTU and NUS, the student body is made up of at least 25 percent international students.
So clearly there is still a discrepancy in the data on the proportion of students.
