Hi everyone, my name is Tom and I was lucky enough to have just spent the semester abroad away from the cold and dreary weather of London and instead in the beautiful, and very hot, country of Singapore! Spending 5 months in South East Asia studying and travelling was one of the best experiences of my life so far. In this blog, I will share how I budgeted for my semester abroad and how my experience as a student in Singapore compared to London.
Firstly, as part of the application process of the KCL Study Abroad team, I needed to demonstrate that I researched all the relevant costs of studying abroad. In my case, this involved looking at fees such as those involved in processing my student visa (£70.60), the costs of flights to Singapore (around £300 one way), as well as the cost of accommodation, with rent ranging from £300-530 per month on campus to £400-1,100 per month off-campus. I also included other costs such as the reduced tuition fees I would need to pay to KCL, administrative fees by NUS (National University of Singapore), travel insurance, costs of public transport, SIM Card and the rough costs of travelling to other countries in South East Asia such as Thailand and Indonesia. Doing this research meant that I knew what to expect when I arrived, which was one less thing to worry about.
After I was accepted to go to NUS, I was given on-campus accommodation at one of their residential colleges known as the College of Alice and Peter Tan (CAPT) which is a bit like the Oxbridge model in the UK, as local students can apply to one of these colleges and take courses that are specific to that college.
My rent for my room at CAPT was £141 a week which included my room, a shared living area, bathroom and a meal plan which meant that most of my breakfasts and dinners during the week were paid for. This is significantly cheaper than London, especially when you take the cost of food into account. There was a great variety of options in the canteen from Malay to Chinese to Indian to Western food, with both a veggie and a meat option for each. Our meal plan also included around £29 that we could spend at select canteens on campus like The Deck, which had loads of different food stalls and options, with my favourite chicken and rice dish costing a mere £2.58 per portion!
I lived in an area called University Town (UTown) which has a park, lecture theatres, a gym, sports halls and an infinity pool, with both the gym and infinity pool completely free to students! There are even some recognizable brands like Subway and Starbucks, where I could get my daily English Breakfast tea and a cookie ☕ 😋. But my favourite part of UTown was its food courts such as Fine Foods and Flavours, as you could get amazing regional dishes like Ho Fun noodles, Hokkien Mee and scrambled egg rice for around £2.50 or less.
I also cannot write about Singapore without mentioning its world-famous hawker centres, which are massive food courts where you can get a cheap breakfast, lunch or dinner. A meal here would cost around £2, with my favourite dishes being carrot cake (which is actually a savoury radish dish and has neither carrot nor cake), kaya toast and sambal stingray. If you’re going to Singapore, I would recommend visiting Tekka Centre in Little India, Maxwell in Chinatown and Newton in central Singapore. I’m definitely going to miss these the most!
Tom Appleby
King’s Student Money Mentor
Part of Money & Housing Advice
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