“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.”

“我们社会就是这样对待我们，还有我们纳税的父母的，”在新加坡一个叫做“思维的鱼缸”(The Thinking Fish Tank)的博客网站上，今年贴出了这样一个帖子。“他们宁可给外国人奖学金，也不给本国人。”

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.

博主自称G.T.，为新加坡国立大学(National University of Singapore)工程系学生。她不是唯一一个在网上抱怨国际学生的，他们认为留学生正在将新加坡本地学生挤出公立大学，其中部分留学生还获得了奖学金。

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.

世界各地的大学都把吸引国际学生当成基本目标。新加坡在这一方面做得很成功，留学生已经占到本科生的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，高等教育部门的全球化让一些新加坡人开始担心吸纳更多的留学生可能会影响当地人上大学的机会，尽管近几年新加坡学生上大学的人数有所增加。

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.

一个政府委员会正在调查如何让更多的新加坡本地人上大学，预计今年年底能够提交建议。

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%左右的高中毕业生能进入公立大学学习，预计在2015年这个数字会增加到30%。教育评论人士认为这个比例和大多数发达国家的不相上下。

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，悉尼大学(University of Sydney)教育与社会工作系讲师谢耀东（Yeow-Tong Chia，音译）说，新加坡大学教育的需求是巨大的，私立教育部门的强劲增长就是明证。

“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.

“需求是非常明显的，部分原因在于东亚文化——儒家文化尊重教育，认为受过高等教育能带来更美好的生活，”谢耀东是土生土长的新加坡人，他在电话里说。

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.

过去十年，新加坡政府将本科生中国际学生的比例限制在20%。根据该国教育部的统计数字，2011年，国际学生占到了本科生人数的18%，其中大多数来自中国、印度还有其他东南亚国家。

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声明中说，国际学生人数将保持在现有水平，其目的是“为了促进新加坡和外国学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.

翻译：马志彦

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