“This is how our society treats us and our parents who pay taxes,” read a post this year on The Thinking Fish Tank, a Singapore-based blog. “They’d rather give scholarships to others than their own.”

“我們社會就是這樣對待我們，還有我們納稅的父母的，”在新加坡一個叫做“思維的魚缸”(The Thinking Fish Tank)的博客網(wǎng)站上，今年貼出了這樣一個帖子。“他們寧可給外國人獎學金，也不給本國人。”

The writer, who identifies herself as G.T. and an engineering student at the National University of Singapore , is not the only one complaining online that international students, some of whom receive scholarships, are squeezing Singaporeans out of public universities.

博主自稱G.T.，為新加坡國立大學(National University of Singapore)工程系學生。她不是唯一一個在網(wǎng)上抱怨國際學生的，他們認為留學生正在將新加坡本地學生擠出公立大學，其中部分留學生還獲得了獎學金。

Universities around the world have made attracting international students a fundamental goal. And Singapore has been successful in its pursuit, with foreigners representing 18 percent of the undergraduate student population.

世界各地的大學都把吸引國際學生當成基本目標。新加坡在這一方面做得很成功，留學生已經占到本科生的18%。

But the globalization of the country’s higher education sector has some Singaporeans concerned that bringing in more international students may have come at a cost to citizens, despite a rise in the number of Singaporean students attending universities in recent years.

但是，高等教育部門的全球化讓一些新加坡人開始擔心吸納更多的留學生可能會影響當?shù)厝松洗髮W的機會，盡管近幾年新加坡學生上大學的人數(shù)有所增加。

A government committee is investigating how Singapore can expand access to Singaporeans and is expected to submit its recommendations by the end of the year.

一個政府委員會正在調查如何讓更多的新加坡本地人上大學，預計今年年底能夠提交建議。

About 27 percent of Singaporean students who finish high school enter public universities, a figure expected to increase to 30 percent by 2015. Education commentators say it is a rate similar to that in most advanced economies.

新加坡27%左右的高中畢業(yè)生能進入公立大學學習，預計在2015年這個數(shù)字會增加到30%。教育評論人士認為這個比例和大多數(shù)發(fā)達國家的不相上下。

But Yeow-Tong Chia, a lecturer at the faculty of education and social work at the University of Sydney, said there was great demand for university education in Singapore, illustrated by the strong growth of the private education sector.

但是，悉尼大學(University of Sydney)教育與社會工作系講師謝耀東（Yeow-Tong Chia，音譯）說，新加坡大學教育的需求是巨大的，私立教育部門的強勁增長就是明證。

“It’s quite obvious that there’s a demand and partly because of the culture of East Asia, the Confucian culture of this reverence for education — the thinking that having a higher education will provide you with a better life,” Mr. Chia, a Singapore native, said by telephone.

“需求是非常明顯的，部分原因在于東亞文化——儒家文化尊重教育，認為受過高等教育能帶來更美好的生活，”謝耀東是土生土長的新加坡人，他在電話里說。

The government has capped the number of international students at 20 percent of the undergraduate intake for the past decade. In 2011, they made up 18 percent, with most coming from China, India and other Southeast Asian countries, according to the Ministry of Education.

過去十年，新加坡政府將本科生中國際學生的比例限制在20%。根據(jù)該國教育部的統(tǒng)計數(shù)字，2011年，國際學生占到了本科生人數(shù)的18%，其中大多數(shù)來自中國、印度還有其他東南亞國家。

The ministry said in a statement that it would maintain current levels “to facilitate better integration between Singaporeans and international students.”

新加坡教育部在一份聲明中說，國際學生人數(shù)將保持在現(xiàn)有水平，其目的是“為了促進新加坡和外國學生更好地融合在一起”。

Mr. Chia said that criticism about the number of foreign students — which reflects broader concerns about the government’s bringing in foreign talent to bolster the work force and economic growth — had been growing since the 1990s, but that concerns became more obvious as people turned to the Web to air their opinions.

翻譯：馬志彥

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