The Straits Times
800 more PhD places at NTU
By Jane Ng
NANYANG Technological University (NTU) will have 800 more places for PhD students in the next five years, as it ramps up its research in areas such as clean energy, healthcare and new media.
Half of these places will be for Singaporeans, a bid to increase the number of local researchers. There are now 2,700 PhD students in NTU, and Singaporeans make up 20 per cent of this number. The new places mean 40 per cent of doctorate students will be Singaporeans.
Currently,
No. of Singaporean PhD students = 0.2 * 2700 = 540
In future,
Additional Singaporean PhD students = 0.5 * 800 = 400
New % of Singaporean PhD students
= (540 + 400) / (2700 + 800) * 100
= 27.0%
That's way way below 40%!!!
Where did the 40% come from?
Answer: plucked from thin air!
In fact, the only way to get 40% given the constraint is:
(540 + 0.5 * x) / (2700 + x) = 0.4
which, upon solving, gives x = 5400
NTU needs to take in a whooping 5400 more PhD students.
Not 800!!!!
This is clearly a 3rd class university which can't even solve PSLE level mathematics!
Or perhaps, this is the fault of a 140th ranked newspaper which employs a journalist who cannot solve PSLE level mathematics!
Either way, pathetic!
And that's how they have been fooling us for the past 40 years - plucking imaginary figures from thin air to make themselves look good on paper!
Worse, that's how they have been screwing up and creating shit for the people - 'cos they can't solve simple math problems when they do their statistical projection, be it population projection, HDB projection etc!
Just imagine:
Over the next 5 years, NTU takes in an additional 800 PhD students, happily thinking that this will allow them to hit the 40% target, when in reality they must take in 5400 students! 5400 is more than 6 times the 800 that they plucked from thin air!!! 5 years later, they find that they did not hit the 40% target, but is only at 27.0%! Will Su Guaning be around to take responsibility for his mistake? No! He will no longer be the President of NTU by next year! Who is going to clean up his shit?
Does that remind you of how we did not reach the Swiss standard of living?
Now, do you understand why we don't have enough HDB flats to cater to 6.5 million people? Why MRT frequency lags behind population growth? Why they say the country can sustain 6.5 million people but we feel the heat even at 5 million people?
Ans: 'cos they all anyhow "hoot", anyhow plucked figures from thin air, anyhow massage their statistics!! They are like emperors with no clothes and nobody dares to tell them the truth!
Truly a 140th ranked newspaper, a 3rd class university and a chao chee bye government!
Time to vote out PAP!