UNSW today and Singapore's tomorrow

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Prior to the debacle, I do not have much of an impression nor opinion of UNSW. Now the whole Singapore knows and talks about UNSW.

UNSW’s dream may have cost the University’s trustees and even Singapore’s taxpayers a few millions dollars. UNSW’s non-performance may have cost some 150 students and families some inconveniences which I believe will eventually be sorted out. UNSW may have given some jobs to some Singapore contractors. UNSW may have temporarily retarded Singapore’s plan to be the education hub. UNSW has certainly lost a lot of “qualitative” goodwill too.

But coincidentally a few weeks before the fallout, I spoke to a media person about not seeing the expected explosion in foreign student numbers to date. The media person was vehemently in disagreement with me. To me, the current education hub theme is a recycled theme with a few new bits. I was a product of the old theme of bringing foreign students to Singapore from neighbouring countries.

What is important to Singapore is knowing what had contributed to the sad story of UNSW. Did the best academic brains in UNSW fail to do its costing, projections, budgeting, scenario analysis, financial analysis, marketing plan, etc etc etc before committing to the project? Is Professor Hilmer too impatient for the tree to bear fruits? Or does he know something we don't? What is/are/was/were EDB’s role/s in the project?

Why is it important to know?
We have two IRs coming on stream in 2-3 years’ time costing billions (not just millions) of dollars. We certainly cannot afford these two IRs to fail on the basis that “the actual tourists/MICE numbers are way below our projected figures”. Many lives are entangled to the fortune of these projects. Given the size of the 2 IRs, we certainly must have investors with DEEP pockets and knowhow to mitigate the risks.

One thing for sure - "No guarantee in life"