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Indonesian students : Survival of the studious

Food for all: A canteen at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University provides various cuisines to cater its multiethnic students

Ary Hermawan (The Jakarta Post)
Singapore
Wed, March 25, 2009

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Indonesian students : Survival of the studious

Food for all: A canteen at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University provides various cuisines to cater its multiethnic students. (JP/Ary Hermawan)

It may seem like conventional wisdom or hackneyed advice, but to most Indonesian students in Singapore, studying hard is the key to surviving in the "very competitive" multicultural educational environment.

"The education system in Singapore is more demanding than that in Indonesia," Laura Tanuwidaja, a 22-year-old student from National University of Singapore (NUS), told The Jakarta Post. "You may say it is *stressful' since we have to perform well enough to be able to compete with other students.

"But the level of the stress," she quickly added, "is still under control. It very much depends on each student's ability to cope with it."

Competition is extremely fierce in the highly multicultural environment, especially with the increasing influx of international students to Singapore's best universities in the past decades, according to Budi Raharjo Santoso, 21, a final year student at Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering.

"Each one of us wants to be the best as we have traveled quite far to study here," he said.

According to Pelajar Indonesia NTU, an Indonesian students association at the university, at least 700 Indonesians - about 600 of whom are undergraduates - study at NTU, which was last year ranked among the world's top 20 technological universities.

Pelajar Indonesia NUS, or PINUS, says about 300 Indonesians study at the country's leading university. The number grows very slightly each year, says Laura, who chairs the association. The other Indonesian students are spread across other Singaporean schools, including Singapore Management University, Singapore Institute of Management, TMC Academy and PSB Academy.

Lonely Trip: A Nanyang Technological University student walks across a pedestrian around the university. Local media reported that foreign students often face loneliness and stress. (JP/Ary Hermawan)
Lonely Trip: A Nanyang Technological University student walks across a pedestrian around the university. Local media reported that foreign students often face loneliness and stress. (JP/Ary Hermawan)

It is not known how many Indonesians study in Singapore, the Indonesian embassy here says, but students associations estimate there are more than 10,000, many of whom almost entirely depend on merit-based scholarship to finance their studies. Falling grades, for some students, can therefore be a nightmare.

Most Indonesian students are able to study thanks to a tuition grant from the Singaporean government, which covers about 70 percent of the total tuition fees, says Fariz Setyadi, 22, a student at NTU's School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering who chairs the Indonesian Students Association in Singapore.

"They can use the loan scheme to cover the rest of it," said Fariz, "or get another scholarship from an agency or company if they manage to get good grades."

The ASEAN Scholarship, Nanyang Scholarship and Sembawang Scholarship are the most common sponsors. They usually also provide a living allowance of between S$500 and $700 a month, which is more than enough, Fariz said.

"You are even still able to save," Budi added.

However, if a student fails to keep his or her GPA above 3 or 3.5 out of 5 for three consecutive semesters, the scholarship will be revoked.

But despite the pressure they face, most students deny the growing perception that the education system in Singapore is too "stressful", following the alleged suicides early this month of two NTU students: David Hartanto Wijaya from Indonesia and Zhou Zheng from China.

The Strait Times, Singapore's leading daily newspaper, reported that foreign students often face dreadful loneliness and stress, citing in their report a Cambodian student at Singapore Management University who said it was not easy to make friends as she felt that the local students are "not always friendly".

Laura admitted that the culturally diverse environment and the fact that students speak a range of languages had made it difficult for her to get along with other students. "It is not like in Indonesia where everybody speaks Indonesian," she said.

But not all students think that way. The language barrier is a problem only for the first months of study in Singapore, said Nicholas Mario Wardhana, a postgraduate student at NTU's School of Computer Engineering. "You soon get used to Singlish," he said with a chuckle.

Most Singaporeans speak English in schools and offices, but they also have developed a peculiar colloquial English known as "Singlish", which often has odd syntax and borrows words from the languages spoken by the country's three major ethnic groups: Chinese, Tamil and Malay.

"NTU provides a special class for students who have problems with their English," Budi said. "The relationship between Indonesian students and other students went well after the incident. They gave us support."

Mario, who graduated from Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University and is now pursuing a master's degree, said he planned on getting a PhD from NTU. "It means that I'll be here for the next five years," said the 21-year-old who loves the Indian food so easily found in Singapore.

There are Indonesian restaurants on the campuses, Mario said, and Malay cuisine is only slightly different from the cuisine at home. Besides, Singapore - geographically and culturally - is not really far from home. "I have been here for more than seven months, and I have not yet gone home," said the Yogyakarta resident.

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