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SINGAPORE: Top Australian institution – the Curtin University of Technology – will be setting up shop here, adding another boost to the tertiary scene in Singapore.
Students can expect degree programmes in business and technology when the campus opens in early December.
The former ITE Balestier campus at Jalan Rajah may not look impressive now, but come December, the buildings will be given a makeover and a new lease of life as the Singapore campus of Australia's Curtin University of Technology.
Details of the S$40 million project are still being worked out, but Australian education service provider, Navitas, said Curtin Singapore will be of the same standard as the university's other campuses in Malaysia and Australia.
Rod Jones, CEO of Navitas, said: "One of the things we would encourage is for students studying in Curtin Singapore campus to do one semester in Australia because part of an international degree is understanding the culture and the country in which the degree is being offered."
Asked if Navitas and Curtin were deterred by the experience of another Australian university, the University of New South Wales which shut its Asia campus here soon after it opened last year, Mr Jones said that unlike UNSW Asia, which was a research university, Curtin saw itself as a teaching university.
Compared to the former, Curtin's model is less expensive to manage.
Curtin Singapore will open its gates to over 900 students, including freshmen and existing students of Curtin's joint programmes with industry partners here.
These partners are Singapore Human Resource Institute, the Marketing Institute of Singapore, and the Singapore Institute of Materials Management.
Although the initial cohort of Curtin students will be fairly modest, the university expects to grow to a size of about 3,000 students in three years.
Talks are also underway to build hostel facilities at the campus, but details have yet to be confirmed.
According to Navitas, there will be some degree of financial aid, but no details can be offered at the moment.
- CNA/so
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