Singapore has emerged as the most sought after education destination for Asian students, especially Indians. There are several competitive advantages this little red dot offers to international students. The country offers education programs at all levels, starting from professional certificate to doctorate, at both private and public institutions. The courses and their curricula are designed to prepare and equip students to meet upcoming challenges of a knowledge-based economy. With a conducive study environment, Singapore could be considered as an ideal place to pursue an internationally recognised qualification.

Reputation for Excellence

The presence of several top institutions in Singapore attests to its strong international reputation for quality education. There are numerous foreign world-class institutes which have set up campuses in Singapore, such as the Tisch School of the Arts and Digipen Institute of Technology. There are also a number of private institutes, which have partnerships with other reputable universities around the world to offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

With so many options available, there are regulatory measures in place to ensure that international students are assured of quality standards. The Council for Private Education (CPE) is a statutory board in Singapore formed to regulate and govern the country's private education sector. The CPE awards two certification schemes to private education providers in the country – the Enhanced Registration Framework and the EduTrust certification scheme.

The Enhanced Registration Framework, which is mandatory, ensures that the teaching faculty is made up of qualified professionals with relevant academic experience, and that the programmes the private education provider offers are authentic and properly audited. EduTrust is a voluntary quality assurance scheme for private education providers in Singapore to demonstrate that their service standards go beyond the industry average. While it is voluntary, it is one of the prerequisites to recruit international students, and the certification process is significantly stricter and rigorous than the Enhanced Registration Framework.