Q&A: Bursary vs Scholarship

I am having a busy afternoon but I really want to address a question that some Singaporeans have been asking on social media regarding the Alvivi case. It goes like this, "why was Alvin Tan awarded a scholarship even though his family is relatively rich?" There are so many issues I'd like to deal with but one at a time.

My family is also relatively rich - yet I was given three scholarships. My parents were teachers and my dad's family is fairly rich. My were grandparents owned so many acres of rubber estate in Johor and were one of the richest families in their town in rural Johor. My late uncle is a Datuk who was good friends with the sultan of Johor. I grew up in a terraced house in Ang Mo Kio - upstairs, downstairs, 4 huge bedrooms, garden, patio, driveway, garage/parking area, big backyard. My parents had no problem putting my two older siblings through NUS, they paid full whack. In short, I was not poor - my parents had plenty of money.  In fact, my dad has bought another condominium in Khatib on top of the terrace house he already owns. Yet I was given three scholarships back to back. Why?

Who do you think should get the scholarships?

Let me explain the difference between a scholarship and a bursary. Here are some definitions to help us out:

Scholarship - A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further their education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria, which usually reflect the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award. Scholarship money is not required to be repaid
Bursary -  the term has become synonymous with monetary awards made by some institutions to individuals or groups of people who cannot afford to pay full fees

I must point out that the definitions are in fact a lot clearer in Chinese (apologies to those of you who don't speak Chinese, but trust me and follow this through with me). In Chinese the translation for scholarship is 奖学金 - individually the characters mean 'award', 'study/student' and 'gold' - but together it means 'scholarship. A bursary on the other hand 助学金 - 助 means 'help'.

A scholarship is very different from a bursary.

Note that for a scholarship, the selection criteria does not usually include the relative wealth of the scholar's family. Instead, it is a big investment for the awarding organisation. In Alvin Tan's case, the scholarship came directly from the university rather than a private or governmental organisation which would've expected the scholar to have worked for the organisation for 6 or 8 years to work off the bond. This is actually fairly common practice - many universities do give out scholarships like that without any kind of bond. Why do they do so?

Don't forget, there is fierce competition amongst universities at the top of the food chain. In the UK, a student with straight As would be wooed by the top 5 universities and certainly, each of these universities would want to attract such great students. If you get someone who is already brilliant, who has already proven himself - then you don't need to polish that diamond for it is already sparkling. This is why top universities like Oxford and Cambridge produce such great results - but is it any wonder if they are already receiving the very best students from every cohort?  A way to make sure that brilliant students chooses your university over your rivals is by offering scholarships. In fact, the top universities all do that so if you are in a privileged position to be wooed by them, then you can actually pick and choose which scholarship is the most generous and has the best conditions.

The best universities are competing for the best students too.

By that token, these scholarships are going to the best students, the most brilliant ones - rather than the most 'deserving' ones. Some of these universities do also give out bursaries to help students who have made the grade to earn themselves a place at the university but are struggling to pay the fees, but bursaries are usually less generous than the scholarships. Let me give you an example:

A student has earned herself a place at a university. It costs her a total of £13,000 a year at the university - but her parents are not working because they both have cancer. They have managed to find half the money - £6500 so the university says, "Okay because of your very difficult family situation, we want to help you. We will offer you the other £6500 to enable you to study here." Yes there is an element of charity here - the more tragic the circumstances, the more generous the bursary. Universities often do have an element of bursary/charity as part of their admissions procedure because it is good PR to help out poor students with difficult family circumstances. Students are evaluated in the basis of need, rather than merit.

That's very different from a scholarship - which is like a bribe to get the best talent to study at your university instead of your rivals' universities. These universities believe that some of these scholars will go on to do great things and bring glory to their alumni - given that I have not yet become famous or won the Nobel prize, my university is probably rather disappointed in how I turned out. But they take that all in their stride, they are not expecting every scholar to go on to become a president or win the Nobel prize. The process is like a princess who kisses many frogs and if one in twenty or one in fifty turns into a prince, then that's a pretty good hit rate.

Yup, I was a waste of money as far as my university is concerned. 

The fact that I have chosen a rather senang diri lifestyle, valuing fun over ambition, that would probably indicate that the university probably should've given my scholarship to someone else who was willing to work a lot harder and driven by far more ambition. But hey, like Alvin, I am a good actor and knew how to tell the interview panel exactly what they wanted to hear in order to secure my scholarship. I may be lazy but I am also crafty and know how to get what I want.

You may say to me, "Hey Limpeh, given that your family isn't poor and could've paid for your university education, aren't you depriving a student from a poor family a chance to go to university by accepting a scholarship you didn't need?" Well, I went through the scholarship route, not the bursary route. I remember another Singaporean scholar who also received a scholarship from my university - him and I knew each other from NS as we were in the same unit for a few months. His family was far richer than mine. I remember how he used to give me a lift in his BMW and I was like, "wow, you have such a beautiful car!" And he would reply, "It's my dad's not mine. But he has a few cars so I get to use the ones he is not using." Yes he was ridiculously rich, but he was also a ridiculously intelligent student from RJC as well. Our university was interested in his potential as a human being, that was why they gave him a scholarship. Poor students who experience financial difficulties can always go through the bursary route and tap into a different pot of money but let's be clear: there are two different pots of money for two very different purposes.

And as for the relative morality of me accepting a scholarship - hey, I earned it fair & square. Anyone could've applied for that scholarship, I fought for it and won it. I suppose very few people actually are in a position to receive competing offers of scholarships from top universities or competing job offers from top companies - that's why they confuse a scholarship with a bursary. I suppose there are some people who may think, "hey it's not fair, rich people shouldn't be allowed to get scholarships. They have rich parents, they are smart - don't they have enough of an advantage already?!" I have news for you. Life just isn't fair - get used to it. Scholarships are an investment on the part of the university, it is not meant to level the playing field for poorer students.

I do think that NUS has some questions to answer but they are really barking up the wrong tree with this whole sex scandal. The fact is Alvin has said on camera during an interview that he has no interest in pursuing law and wants to pursue instead a career in showbiz. "Probably something in the entertainment industry - anything that allows me to be famous. Yeah I like being famous.... Law is definitely not for me, I struck that one out in year one at law school already. You gotta make your parents happy sometimes."

So ... how could you have given a law scholarship to someone who wasn't even sure he wanted to do law to begin with? I have a friend who is currently in NUS law and she is working so hard to make her dreams come true - she spent her holidays during her JC days doing unpaid internships at some of the law firms in Singapore and good grief, if you're going to give out law scholarships, give it to students who definitely 100% sure wanna go into law - not someone who (like Alvin) is just doing it to please his parents but has no intention to go through with it. For me, this is the real issue - his sex blog is just a red herring!
So there you go, I hope this article has cleared up any confusion between a scholarship and a bursary. You may argue that universities should give out more bursaries and less scholarships - but that's up to each university to decide for themselves what is right for them. I don't judge them, I am just explaining to you how the system works. Any questions, please leave a comment - thanks.

PS. I am off to Somerset to spend the weekend in the countryside, here are the photos.
For more on the Alvivi Saga:
http://limpehft.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/in-defence-of-vivian-lee.html
http://limpehft.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-double-standards-of-singaporeans.html
http://limpehft.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/doing-it-alvivi-style-alvin-tan-vivian.html