To draw Indian students to the leading educational institutes in Singapore, an education fair, Singapore Education Roadshow, was organised by the Singapore Tourism Board on Wednesday.

With the presence of renowned universities like MIT, Stanford and Georgia Institute of Technology, Singapore has grown into a hotspot for education, especially for students from Asia.

Representatives of various educational institutes from Singapore said that they are currently focussing on the students in the Indian subcontinent, with specialised courses in management, medicine and technical studies. Similar roadshows will be conducted in six other cities, including New Delhi.

“Indian students have an excellent academic record in streams like science and management. Calcutta itself has produced so many brilliant students. Therefore, we feel that our attractive courses can help a lot of talented students here,” said Leah Yoong, project manager of Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School.

The Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, a joint venture of Duke University in the US and University of Singapore, is one of the examples of the “international” education system in Singapore.

“We don’t have the quota system in our university, so we are not very sure how many Indian students will roll in,” Yoong added.

“We are organising these kind of roadshows to reach more students in this part of the country. By this, we can estimate how many students may enrol themselves in the coming session,” explained P. Arumugam, manager at the Management Development Institute of Singapore.

And to achieve the desired results, the Singapore government has been developing its education infrastructure to woo in overseas students. One-stop service centres will be set up for student assistance. They will provide various kind of information regarding admission, student visa applications, courses, hostels and lodging.

By the year-end, such information centres will reach different corners of India, the officials added. “The cost of living and education expenses are far cheaper in Singapore than in the West. Singapore has a cosmopolitan atmosphere like the western countries, though we have retained our own Asian values. I think these are our USPs,” said Kenneth Lim, area director for North and East India, Singapore Tourism Board.

“Singapore has also the lowest crime rate in the world. I am confident that the Indian students will feel as safe there as in their own homeland,” signed off Lim.