(Summary by Prachayani
Praphamontripong)
PROPHE Summary:
The growth of Singapore's private education may face interruption as
complaints have increased over the past few years. For instance, a private
higher education institution has been sued for misleading advertisement
of a program and breaking promises to students, and even a widely-recognized
private institute has been castigated. A fear is that improper behavior
undermines Singapore's aspirations to be an international education
hub. More regulations on accreditation will be proposed in the near
future by various non-education agencies even though the education ministry
prefers a more self-regulatory approach for private institutions. Some
fear the new regulations could be excessive and weaken private institutions.
Currently, over 100,000 students (nearly half foreign) attend the private
education institutions.
For the full story see The Nation, September 15, 2004. "Complaints
against private schools on the rise," by Teh Joo Lin & Joann
Tan in The Straits Times.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/page.arcview.php3?clid=22&id=106610&date=2004-09-15&usrsess=1
PROPHE Observation:
Unfortunately, the article is not clear about what part of its content
applies to higher education, defined in what way, and what part concerns
private education overall. Clearly, however, cited problems include
some private institutions of advanced education. It is common for private
higher education in Asia and elsewhere to expand rapidly and then get
criticized for fraud or low quality. Private higher education often
reaches for students from outside the country and debates about policy
therefore have economic and political ramifications.
