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Singapore universities pull plug on Hong Kong stints for students on government advice
- More than 100 students will postpone exchange programmes at Hong Kong universities this semester on advice from Singapore’s education ministry
- But an academic asks if it’s a ‘missed opportunity’ for learning, as the turmoil in Hong Kong could help them understand social divisions
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Singapore’s education ministry has advised the city state’s six government-funded universities to postpone all trips to Hong Kong, with the institutions immediately pulling the plug on student exchange programmes due to begin next month.
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The ministry told This Week in Asia its guidance to the institutions covered student and staff trips, including “visits, exchanges and internships”, and was issued last Friday after Singapore’s ministry of foreign affairs updated its travel advisory for Hong Kong.
The travel advisory suggested that Singaporeans defer non-essential travel to Hong Kong, which has for the past two months been roiled by increasingly violent anti-government protests.
While protests last weekend did not end with police firing tear gas, countries including the United States and Australia have maintained travel alerts warning citizens of the risk of violent confrontations in Hong Kong.
No other governments are known to have issued notices advising university staff and students to avoid the city for the time being, though students from other countries had also pulled out of exchange programmes, according to feedback from three of the eight publicly-funded universities in Hong Kong.
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The education ministry has been asked if it was the first time it had advised universities to axe overseas programmes over safety concerns.
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