Abstract
This chapter uses the case of the “SM2” scheme to illustrate how Singapore recruits foreign talent students. Installed in 1997, the SM2 program is one of the three long-running PRC scholarships that have been channeling Chinese students to Singapore. It annually provides 200–400 teenage senior middle-school students full undergraduate scholarships with living stipends, and in return legally obligates the scholarship-recipients to work in Singapore for six years after obtaining their degree. After a general overview of the SM2 program, this chapter provides a first-hand ethnographic account of the 15th batch SM2 recruitment in 2011 in the southern Chinese province of Jiangxi. It offers unique and rare insights into the ways in which this Singaporean scholarship scheme is perceived and received by its Chinese targets.
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Yang, P. (2016). Selecting Scholars for Singapore: The SM2 Program. In: International Mobility and Educational Desire. Anthropological Studies of Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59143-2_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59143-2_3
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