Average Per-undergraduate Student Annual Expenditure on Teaching and Education Services
Ministry of EducationSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the average annual expenditure per undergraduate student across various faculties and the breakdown of funding sources, including tuition revenue, government grants, and endowment income. Assoc Prof Walter Theseira requested detailed figures for autonomous universities, prompting Minister for Education Ong Ye Kung to explain that costs vary based on pedagogy, faculty-student ratios, and capital requirements. Minister for Education Ong Ye Kung stated that the Ministry of Education establishes per-student cost norms to encourage cost discipline while funding programmes across different universities. For the 2019 financial year, government funding for operating expenses averaged around $22,000 per student, serving as the primary source of university education funding. Students generally cover 25% of education costs, with universities using government-matched endowment income to supplement their programmes alongside official grants and tuition.
Transcript
7 Assoc Prof Walter Theseira asked the Minister for Education (a) what is the average per-undergraduate student annual expenditure on teaching and educational services broken down by faculty/school for each of the autonomous universities; and (b) what is the breakdown of the source of such expenditure by tuition revenue, government grant and endowment income.
Mr Ong Ye Kung: Expenditure for undergraduate education varies across the Autonomous Universities (AUs) and course clusters, depending on factors, such as the education model and pedagogy, faculty-to-student ratio for the courses, and the capital costs involved in delivering the course. Courses with better faculty-to-student ratios include the law programmes, while courses with higher capital costs include laboratory-based programmes like computing, science and engineering.
For similar courses, the Ministry of Education (MOE) does not vary our funding to AUs based on their expenditure. Instead, we establish a per-student cost norm for similar courses across universities and fund programmes based on these norms. This approach encourages cost discipline across our AUs even as they strive to deliver high quality undergraduate education. Overall, the average Government funding for operating expenses per undergraduate in FY2019 is around $22,000.
Government grants continue to be the main source of funding for university education. Students generally pay around 25% of the cost of education. The AUs tap on income from endowment, which is built up with Government matching, to supplement Government funding for their programmes.