Singapore hopes to attain sufficient breadth and robustness in its economy by ensuring that at least 25% of its Gross Domestic Product continues to come from manufacturing. In view of this, the University's science and engineering disciplines must continue to attract a fair share of the best young talent. There is a tendency, however, for an increasing number of students to gravitate to other courses which appear to be either less demanding, technically, or more rewarding, financially. To counter this, the University should assist schools and government agencies in keeping students well-informed, so that they can make correct choices.
Advanced manufacturing requires more manpower at postgraduate level for design, development and research. More local students will have to be persuaded to pursue postgraduate studies to meet the increasing demand for such higher-level manpower. Meanwhile, NUS has been successful in attracting other Asian students to its postgraduate research programmes, and this has benefitted industry as many of them have chosen to stay and work in Singapore after their studies. More effort is needed to sustain this inflow of talent and to recruit good foreign students from countries outside Asia.
