Singapore has been praised for enhancing the competitiveness
of its university education by attracting foreign universities and
research institutes through the Global School House (GSH).
What should be the same as and different from the newly
emerging “Incheon Global Campus (IGC)”? The game to choose
the best educational hub in Asia is beginning now.
The same goal of cultivating global talent
The GSH in Singapore and the IGC seem to be the same but are actually different. The common thing is that both paid attention to the rise in demand for high-quality education and studying abroad with the economic development and social evolution progress in Asia. This means that they realized the need for a global campus to bring back their students studying abroad, while attracting overseas students.
The GSH went ahead at the beginning. In 2002, Singapore promoted a number of plans to become an international hub for education, centering around the GSH. It continued to ensure a wide range of educational programs, ranging from secondary education to college education, as well as a high-quality education supply system. Singapore has retained its fame since the world's top universities such as the University of Chicago, INSEAD, Johns Hopkins University, and MIT are located in the GSH. IGC would greatly contribute to enhancing the growth potential of South Korea as the birthplace of global education. It was established in the Songdo International City as a joint campus where 10,000 students can study with the goal of attracting ten prestigious foreign universities with an investment of approximately KRW 1 trillion by the ROK government and Incheon Metropolitan City. The IGC is considered a global campus success case as some of the world's leading universities have moved in. They include the SUNY Stony Brook University in 2012, George Mason University, Ghent University, and The University of Utah in 2014, and the SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology in 2017, and the Stanford Research Center, scheduled to open in 2020.
Forward-looking policies to determine future development
One of the keys to the success of the GSH in Singapore is that it has good accessibility to Asia, India, Australia and other countries. What's also noteworthy is the Singapore government's aggressive support policies for foreign universities in the GSH. For example, their campus sites are leased at no cost or construction budgets are subsidized, and 50% of operating and research expenses are supported, not to mention tax exemptions and financial guarantees. Foreign students are provided with scholarships, tuition loans, and other various benefits. The GSH is gaining popularity due to its advantages in allowing students to complete world-class undergraduate programs and earn the same degree as the home campus at low cost, as well as its support for tenant universities.
In the meantime, the reason why the IGC immediately attracted world attention also lies in its location. The IGC is located in the heart of Northeast Asia, and keeps by its side the Incheon Airport with flights to more than 170 cities in 60 countries around the world. With the revision to the relevant law, the IGC is also accelerating policy support that has been somewhat insufficient. This includes opening the way for industry-academia-research cooperation leveraging the excellent researchers and infrastructures of
foreign universities. IGC is committed to enhancing its competitiveness with a host of educational convenience, allowing students to earn credits freely between the home campus and the Incheon campus, and offering more scholarships than the home campus.
