Foreign Students Defaulting on Scholarship Bonds

5 Mr Png Eng Huat asked the Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) (a) in the past 10 years, how many foreign students had intentionally defaulted on fulfilling their scholarship bonds; (b) how much scholarship monies has the Ministry managed to recover from these students; (c) how much of such scholarship monies remain uncollected; (d) what is the average length of time taken to recover monies from defaulters; (e) how many defaulters are deemed to be non-contactable anymore; and (f) how much scholarship monies are written off to date.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Acting Ministers for Education (Ms Low Yen Ling) (for the Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills)): Mdm Speaker, over the past few years, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has progressively stepped up enforcement measures to track and ensure that our scholars fulfil their bond obligations. For example, since 2014, we have enhanced our data interfaces with partner agencies, such as the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA), to better ascertain the scholars' employment status. We have also strengthened communications with all scholars to convey to them the gravity of their bond obligations, from the start of their scholarship award and throughout their undergraduate study.

The proportion of defaulters is about 1%. We are in the process of contacting another 4% to determine their bond service status. The remaining 95% are serving their bonds and some of them have applied for deferment due to postgraduate studies and, for a very small number of cases, they are unable to serve their bonds due to very serious illness.

I want to reassure the Member that MOE takes a serious view of defaulters. It is not just a matter of money, but it is a matter of honour and trust. We have managed to recover from a few of these defaulters and the rest will take time as the defaulters are not in Singapore. We will continue to chase them down. Those who fail to pay their liquidated damages will not be able to work or reside in Singapore.

I also want to reassure the Member that MOE does not write off any scholarship monies lightly. Write-offs are considered only as a last resort and on a case-by-case basis, for example, due to very serious medical conditions and, like I mentioned earlier, it involves only a small number of students.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Png Eng Huat.

Mr Png Eng Huat (Hougang): Mdm Speaker, I thank the Parliamentary Secretary for the answer. But there are no numbers given, like how many foreign students there are, apart from the 1% that defaulted and the 4% that are unknown. So, can the Parliamentary Secretary give a comprehensive reply in terms of the numbers? How much money has been recovered? How much scholarship monies were written off even though the Parliamentary Secretary had said that MOE does not write off such monies easily?

I have a supplementary question. How much effort is MOE going to take to recover those monies? How far will MOE go to take these errant scholars to task? I understand it is only 1%, but, as what the Parliamentary Secretary had said, these scholars have tarnished the image and intention of the whole system. I also agree that there are scholars who are contributing and have become citizens, and these errant scholars have also tarnished the names of these scholars. So, can the Parliamentary Secretary elaborate on this?

Ms Low Yen Ling: Mdm Speaker, I want to thank the Member for his supplementary questions. Just to put things in context, let me share a bit on the numbers.

Annually, about $12 billion is spent on education. Out of this $12 billion, about $5 billion goes to higher education, of which the bulk of that goes to Singaporeans. So, only a small proportion of that is spent on international scholars and, of that small portion, 1% of them default, like I mentioned earlier.

Even though they defaulted because they did not show the intention to fulfil their bond obligations, we will continue to recover from them the liquidated damages. A few of them have started to pay back the monies and we will continue to chase the rest of the defaulters for the scholarship monies. In the event that they do not pay the liquidated damages, they will not be able to come to Singapore to work or to stay. I want to reassure the Member that MOE certainly is reviewing this very seriously and very closely.

The Member asked about our efforts. I can assure the Member that we will not spare any efforts in ensuring that the steps are taken to monitor and track our scholars to ensure that they understand the gravity of their bond obligations, not just at the point of time when they received the scholarship, but throughout their undergraduate study. We will tighten the process that we have with the university in order to convey the gravity of their bond obligations.

After their graduation, the scholars are expected to update their contact details with us and about their employment status. We will constantly review the system to ensure that we have a robust and also rigorous tracking system to uphold the trust and honour that we expect from these recipients who have the privilege of studying in Singapore.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Png Eng Huat.

Mr Png Eng Huat: Mdm Speaker, I understand that the foreign scholarships make up only a small percentage. I just want to reiterate that even though it is small, this group of people tarnish the whole intention of this foreign scholarship scheme. The Parliamentary Secretary has said that MOE will take all efforts to recover the cost. Can the Parliamentary Secretary share what are the efforts that MOE has taken so far?

Ms Low Yen Ling: Let me reiterate. In my earlier reply, I said that in the last few years, we have strengthened the processes that we have with the relevant partner agencies like MOM and ICA to ensure that we have the data interfaces to know whether the scholars are employed in Singapore and are still in Singapore. That is one type of intensification of efforts on that front.

The second thing that we are doing is we are also tightening the coordination with the universities, like I have mentioned, to do a few things.

One, to convey to the scholars the importance of fulfilling their bond obligations and to stress to them the consequence of not fulfilling the bond obligations. We will chase down the liquidated damages. If they do not pay the liquidated damages, we will ban them from working and staying in Singapore. That is our coordination with the universities.

In addition to that, the MOE team has also placed calls and surveys with scholars to understand their employment status.

These are the few things that we have done and we will continue to intensify efforts to ensure that we have a very robust tracking system, like I have mentioned, to ensure that the scholars fulfil their bond obligations. For those who, for whatever reasons, are recalcitrant and are unwilling to do so, we will ensure that we will have the avenues to recover liquidated damages from them, failing which, like I have mentioned, we will work with ICA to ensure that these defaulters will be banned from working and residing in Singapore.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Azmoon Ahmad.

Mr Azmoon Ahmad (Nominated Member): Can the Parliamentary Secretary share with us, compared to five years ago, is the current status better or is it worse than before, in terms of the defaulters?

Ms Low Yen Ling: I have updated the House on the various measures that we have taken in the last few years to ensure that we can monitor and track our scholars' abilities to fulfil their bond obligations. We hope to have the Members' understanding that, as you can imagine, this is not just an effort that is within MOE but also coordinating with the universities and also with MOM and ICA. To compile all the data requires a very tight tracking system for it to be very robust.

We know that the great majority have, over the last 10 years, served their bonds based on the many calls and surveys that we have done, but for a small minority who cannot be contacted or choose to remain uncontactable, it is not easy to ascertain if they have served their bonds. But this is a system, like I have mentioned, that is improving and we can now ascertain that in the last three years, the default rate is 1%. I have highlighted the various measures that we have taken to address the defaulters and we will continue to build on these efforts.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Cedric Foo.

Mr Cedric Foo Chee Keng (Pioneer): Mdm Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to ask some questions. I would like to ask the Parliamentary Secretary to bring the House back to the bigger picture. Actually, I am very glad that out of the 100% of international scholars, only 1%-5% are defaulters. For the 95% who abide by the scholarship obligations, how have they contributed to the schooling experience of Singaporeans? How have they contributed to Singapore? Can the Parliamentary Secretary talk a little bit about that?

Ms Low Yen Ling: I want to thank the Member for that important question which really brings us back to the big picture. I want to assure all Members that MOE's utmost priority is nurturing Singaporean talent, our own students and the majority of scholarships awarded at the undergraduate level go to Singapore Citizens.

International scholarships, as the Member has mentioned, serve to add diversity and intellectual life on campus, providing opportunities for Singaporean students to develop cross-cultural skills exposure, global awareness and also augment our key industries when they graduate and enter the workforce. And if we look around the world, across the various developed countries, the top universities award scholarships for this purpose. Why? To benefit their own local cohort; and in our case, to benefit the Singaporean cohort of students with a cross-cultural diversity and exposure.

On the second question, many of these scholars, like I have mentioned, a great majority, have gone on to fulfil their bond obligations and they have gone on to make valuable contributions to their universities, to Singapore and the region. In addition to that, they have also helped in a way to promote a better understanding of ASEAN countries and our region amongst our youths. This is important because it builds up Singapore's connections and friendships with these countries around us, strengthening mutual goodwill and relations.