Scholars and Scholarships
I just realized something when reading the papers the past few weeks – there are significantly more scholarships given out this year compared to last year. For example, MOE gave out closed to 50 more awards than last year’s, PSC gave like 10 more scholarships too, and this are just the few scholarships that are featured in the papers. Ha, are this year’s candidates better than my batch’s? Or could it be because that the economy is now booming and a general election is just around the corner?
Hmm, for the first point, I’m not exactly sure that this year’s cohort is so much better than mine’s. Ok, from whatever contact which I know of my juniors, my teachers tend to say that my batch is better (or are those just comforting statements?), but I seriously doubt that there is so much difference between us. In fact, I personally think that our capabilities are all about the same. Yes, I must say that the credentials which this year’s President Scholars have are almost similar to my batch ones, so I guess there isn’t much disparity.
So am I saying that the economy is now booming that’s why the government can allocate more money to support scholars? Well, that is of course a possible explanation. After all, during periods of recession, any government will naturally cut down its expenditure in some areas and focus on how to improve the domestic economy. Since scholarships are mainly causing money to flow to other countries (think of those overseas scholars), it will be better to pump the money to upgrading projects as it will stimulate the domestic economy, hence improving growth rates. Sad to say, I do not have the data for number of scholarships given out between 1995 to 2005 (which covers a good bit of the recession years and the boom years), so there is no way which I can test out my hypothesis.
The argument about the election being around the corner is much more credible – after all, history has shown that the government tend to improve the lives of the people more when elections are near. The Straits Times in the past 3 weeks has clearly illustrated how elections tend to affect the community. On top of that, studies have shown that during election years, the government will tend to splurge more so as to help the incumbents retain their seats. So it seems that it is highly likely that more scholarships are given out so as to please more people. Unfortunately, I do not have the data for the number of scholarships given out over the past years, so I cannot say for sure whether this trend is justifiable.
But still, I am certainly curious in the high number of scholarships given out this year. After all, would I have gotten an OMS this year if I had applied instead of last year? He, ultimately that is still one of the biggest doubts in my life since I love the chance to be on the MAP program as well as disrupt for studies to. Ok, that’s not to say that I am extremely sad, but just a little disappointed that I didn’t get OMS cause my preferred ministry is still MOF or MTI. But then, I’m still happy with my current state for I met so many wonderful people in my camp, as well as have the opportunity to join a profession that is highly revered by many.
Hmm, for the first point, I’m not exactly sure that this year’s cohort is so much better than mine’s. Ok, from whatever contact which I know of my juniors, my teachers tend to say that my batch is better (or are those just comforting statements?), but I seriously doubt that there is so much difference between us. In fact, I personally think that our capabilities are all about the same. Yes, I must say that the credentials which this year’s President Scholars have are almost similar to my batch ones, so I guess there isn’t much disparity.
So am I saying that the economy is now booming that’s why the government can allocate more money to support scholars? Well, that is of course a possible explanation. After all, during periods of recession, any government will naturally cut down its expenditure in some areas and focus on how to improve the domestic economy. Since scholarships are mainly causing money to flow to other countries (think of those overseas scholars), it will be better to pump the money to upgrading projects as it will stimulate the domestic economy, hence improving growth rates. Sad to say, I do not have the data for number of scholarships given out between 1995 to 2005 (which covers a good bit of the recession years and the boom years), so there is no way which I can test out my hypothesis.
The argument about the election being around the corner is much more credible – after all, history has shown that the government tend to improve the lives of the people more when elections are near. The Straits Times in the past 3 weeks has clearly illustrated how elections tend to affect the community. On top of that, studies have shown that during election years, the government will tend to splurge more so as to help the incumbents retain their seats. So it seems that it is highly likely that more scholarships are given out so as to please more people. Unfortunately, I do not have the data for the number of scholarships given out over the past years, so I cannot say for sure whether this trend is justifiable.
But still, I am certainly curious in the high number of scholarships given out this year. After all, would I have gotten an OMS this year if I had applied instead of last year? He, ultimately that is still one of the biggest doubts in my life since I love the chance to be on the MAP program as well as disrupt for studies to. Ok, that’s not to say that I am extremely sad, but just a little disappointed that I didn’t get OMS cause my preferred ministry is still MOF or MTI. But then, I’m still happy with my current state for I met so many wonderful people in my camp, as well as have the opportunity to join a profession that is highly revered by many.
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