Publication: The Asahi Shimbun Date: 28 November 2006 Headlines: The blossoming of management universities b..LE SMU

SMU Publication: The Asahi Shimbun Date: 28 November 2006 Headlines: The blossoming of management universities

Alongside high-class shopping centers and restaurants stand the sturdy glass buildings of the Singapore Management University (SMU) campus. The 450 million campus extends over a total of 4.5 hectares in the heart of the city.

Opened in 2001, SMU's total intake for its undergraduate and graduate schools in its first year stands at about 4700 students. It is the third university in the country alongside National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Even though SMU operates in a private manner, the government has been deeply involved in the initial stages of the school's founding by subsidizing half of its running costs. Essentially, SMU can be considered to be the nation's "third national university".

SMU offers one of the most unique courses in the field, the MSc in Wealth Management Programme. "Assets in Asia are booming in line with the region's economic growth, but the region still lacks talented people who can effectively manage this wealth. This is the reason why we offered a course that is different from MBA," said Professor Francis Koh, who is in charge of the Wealth Management course in SMU.

Some financial big names which are collaborating with SMU include Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and Deutsche Bank, among others. Government linked financial institutions such as the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and Temasek Holdings are also in the list. Students are also given the internship opportunities at these world-renown financial powerhouses.

School fees at SMU cost SGD48,OOO (about 3,600,000Yen). Comparing this amount to similar courses that costs over 5,000,000Yen in the United States, Professor Koh thinks that SMU courses are offered at a very reasonable price. With an average age of 30, the 55 students in the Wealth Management course gathered here in Singapore from 12 countries in Asia. Around 10 students are sent by the Central Banks of their respective countries (China, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia); around 20 are self-sponsored; and another 20 are sent by financial institutions like GIC and Temasek Holdings.

In a ten-month long course, students busy themselves with lessons and internships at the same time. SMU proves itself to be a good recruitment ground for many financial institutions. Philippines-born Grant Cheng (25 years old), who received a scholarship from City Bank, said, "Being a student at SMU is a turning point in my life."

The Draw of 'Globalism'

INSEAD, one of the top business schools in the world, established their campus in Singapore in the year 2000. The school was looking at 11 Asian cities including Tokyo and Hong Kong when deciding the best location for its Asia Campus. Singapore, however, was able to beat their competitors with her good geographical location and reputation as a cosmopolitan state. On top of this, Singapore also laid on the table irresistable offers such as unprecendented low pricing for the use of land, and the provision of 10 million in research funding. The welcoming policies and enthusiastic invites from the Singapore side proved to be the deciding factor.

As students are allowed the opportunity to rotate between its France and Singapore campus each semester, the number of students here in Singapore usually increases during the winter term.

"I was amazed at how Singapore could become so prosperous with her limited population and no natural resources. When I finally came here in person, I felt that Singapore has a certain dynamism that is different from that in Japan," remarked 33 year old Watanabe Hideki, who was sent here from Sony Corporation.

The Singapore government came up with the concept of a "Global School House" in 1998 in a bid to create an education and research hub in Singapore. However, attracting more high quality lecturers and students and education personnel meant more money to be spent. To balance off, it would be of the nation's interest to make foreign students stay and work in Singapore to supplement the labour force here.

According to the Economic Development Board (EDB), it is necessary to secure around 10,000 highly skilled personnel to remain in Singapore in order to maintain the nation's economic growth. With this idea in mind, EDB then went on to invite other leading education institutes such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Technical University of Munich to set up establishments in Singapore. Currently, EDB has surpassed its initial goal of 10 to reach a total of 16 successful invites of world renowned universities into Singapore.

According to EDB figures, there are about 70,000 foreign students in Singapore at the moment, and they contribute to 3.6% of the country's GDP. The agency is determined to raise the figures by 5% to 150,000 foreign students by the year 201 5.

Calls for concerns: Saturation compromises quality

"How to keep talented personnel in fields like asset management in Singapore amidst cost cutting trends is the issue to tackle with from now on," highlighted Chairman Ujie Junichi of Nomura Holdings when he was invited to Singapore by the Monetary Authorities of Singapore (MAS) in September.

Singapore's financial institutions held a competitive edge over London and New York due to its lower labour costs. However, if these institutions begin to hire high-salaried financial personnel from the United States and Europe, the competitive edge of the city state might be weakened. Under such circumstances, the Singapore government was induced to commit itself in setting up schools like SMU and inviting overseas leading universities into the country.

Ads such as "Get your MBA from UK or America here in Singapore!" appear in the local newspapers everyday. Private business schools which occupies only a single office space or schools in collaboration with overseas universities which promise students their MBA degrees via satellite learning are on the rise. There are about 100 of such private business schools in Singapore, even thought the Ministry of Education does not have an exact figure. Educators are worried that the mushrooming of such schools might cause a disparity in the quality of business education here. "We observe strict rules when we give degrees to our students. However, the saturation of similar courses in Singapore might devalue our degrees," a personnel of a business school pointed out in apprehension.