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SINGAPORE: Dr Tony Tan's ideas on expanding the university sector will be taken very seriously, said Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
Mr Tharman added that Dr Tan, the Advisor to the Committee on Expansion of the University Sector, has a lot of experience and has made some interesting points.
But the number of universities Singapore should have and how they are to be set up have to be studied carefully.
Dr Tan had suggested establishing a new university or several niche campuses focusing on specialised areas such as health sciences, technology and financial services on Saturday.
He also advised to increase university places by 800 to 1000 next year.
According to Mr Tharman, such expansion has been done from year to year to cater to larger cohorts.
"Next year happens to be a smaller cohort, so we want to move as soon as we can to providing places for 25 per cent of the cohort. The next bulge here is 2009, not next year. You can't increase too suddenly of course, because you need faculty and you don't want to lower the standards of recruitment of faculty, and make sure that whatever we do for the transitional years, we don't lower standards of teaching and education that is provided to existing students."
Mr Tharman said the ideas suggested by Dr Tan will be considered by the committee on the expansion of university sector, led by Minister of State for Education, Rear-Admiral Lui Tuck Yew. - CNA/ac
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