UNIVERSITY fees have been raised regularly every year for the past few years, bar the economic crisis year of 2009.
After the latest increase this year, undergraduates and a Forum letter-writer ('How would increased revenue benefit students' by Mr Tay Xiong Sheng; Jan 18) sought information on how the additional fees were being used, such as increasing the teaching staff-to-student ratio. I must have missed the answers that were given.
But yesterday's report ('NTU campus poised for major makeover') provided part of the answer: 70 new-age classrooms, giant interactive screens, meeting places 'where the humanities girl
can meet the engineering boy', new ponds to collect rainwater for irrigation, a 'hotel' where researchers stay on the same floor.
The National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University and other tertiary institutions may well follow Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) major renovation initiative, which may fuel further spikes in university fees.
Our universities are funded by public funds, donations and alumni contributions.
Can NTU explain how much capital is being spent on the major makeover, the additional yearly depreciation and operating costs that will be incurred, and whether these could have resulted in higher fee increases?
Can the humanities girl meet the engineering boy, or the professor engage students, or meetings between art and engineering professors occur in humbler, less expensive surroundings?
Presumably these interactions are already taking place?
Wong Tuck Yin