Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr has officially launched Stamford Land’s Scholarship for Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY School).
The endowment, set up with a SGD$1,000,000 donation, issued to fund scholarships that enable Australian students to pursue their graduate studies at the LKY School, and is matched dollar-for-dollar by the Ministry of Education, Singapore.
Established in 2004, the LKY School aims to train policy-makers and leaders with a view to raising the standards of governance in the region.
A leading school for public policy, about 80 per cent of each cohort comprises international students while more than half receive some form of financial aid or scholarships.
Stamford Land Executive Chairman Mr C K Ow AO said it was an honour to tie in their donation with the prestigious LKY School.
“We believe in contributing to the positive transformation of countries where we operate. It is also a privilege to tie our contribution to our presence in and commitment to Australia,” he said.
A home-grown name built from scratch, Stamford Land is Australasia’s largest owner-operator of luxury 5-star hotels. The Singapore-listed company has also expanded into property development in Australia.
The financial support will help attract greater diversity to the classrooms.
“We are delighted to have the support of corporate donors like Stamford Land, who see the intrinsic value of educating the next generation of leaders in the region,” said Professor Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of LKY School.
“The first recipient of the scholarship was an outstanding Australian young man, Carl McIntyre, who was President of his class and was a top 10 student of his cohort.”
McIntyre graduated in 2012 with a Master in Public Administration from LKY School. He currently works as a strategy consultant in Australia and, counts local and federal government among his clients.
Senator Carr said Stamford Land Corporation and the LKY School are playing an important role in deepening education ties between Australia and Singapore.
“Thanks to the generosity of Stamford Land Corporation, more Australian students will now be able to benefit from an education at LKY School, one of the premier public policy institutes not just in the region but globally,” Carr said.
“Simply put – we need more Australians to study in Asia. This is a point that Professor Mahbubani made to Dr Ken Henry AC, the author of the Australian Government’s ‘Australia in the Asian Century’ White Paper – and it is reflected loudly and clearly in the final text of that paper.”
Pictured above: Australian High Commissioner Philip Green OAM, Mr C K Ow AO, Senator the Hon Bob Carr, Professor Kishore Mahbubani and Mr George Yeo AO