The Hindu Business Line : Singapore woos Indian students

BOASTING its proximity and cultural resonance to India, Singapore has launched an aggressive campaign to woo Indian students with attractive offers to enrol in its educational institutions.

Encouraged by an overwhelming response to its exhibition in January in Chennai, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) stepped up its campaign by launching a road show here on Tuesday to market the educational opportunities to graduate and post-graduate students through its brand name `Singapore Education'.

The road show will travel to Mumbai and Delhi later.

According to an STB spokesman, the attractive feature of `Singapore Education' was that each student enrolled in public universities would enjoy subsidised costs, as the Singapore Government would be extending the subvention to the universities.

Leading universities such as National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and private institutions such as Singapore Management and Management Development Institute of Singapore are the key participants in the road show. Institutions offering speciality courses in fashion, design, hospitality and culinary preparation are also part of the exhibition.

Being the global hub for 6,000 multinational companies and a with dynamic research environment, STP said Singapore's educational model offered easy employment opportunities to make it a conducive place for education.

Education was the key growth sector for STB, said the spokesman and added: "We take serious and concerted approach towards developing this sector.

"South India has traditionally been a valuable and important market for Singapore, and with a sound reputation `Singapore Education' had, we are confident that students from South India would be attracted to the wide array of schools and programmes `Singapore Education' has to offer."

The fit between Singapore Education's offering and the Indian market was extremely good, in terms of recognition, environment, scope and price, the STB spokesman said.

This was the second road show STB was organising this year to capture the growing education market in India. In November STB will be returning to India to promote World MBA tour.