{"id":953,"date":"2025-10-17T23:53:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T22:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/moneymentors\/?p=953"},"modified":"2025-10-17T23:53:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T22:53:00","slug":"my-experience-as-a-study-abroad-student-in-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/moneymentors\/2025\/10\/17\/my-experience-as-a-study-abroad-student-in-singapore\/","title":{"rendered":"My Experience as a Study Abroad Student in Singapore"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hello again and welcome this blog post detailing my semester abroad at the National University of Singapore (NUS)! In this blog, I will tell you more about the university experience at NUS and how this compares to London, as well as how I got to experience some of the wonders of both Singapore and South East Asia without breaking the bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As NUS is so large, it has its own system of shuttle buses for students which are completely free. This means that I can go directly to my lectures without spending a single penny or I could get to my nearest MRT station (the much cleaner Singaporean version of the Tube) for free. Speaking of the MRT system, as Singapore is such a small country (it is smaller than London!), it means that it is very easy to get around if you take advantage of its transport system. Like the Tube, you can use a contactless card when you enter and exit but the prices are much cheaper, with most of my fares amounting to around \u00a31<\/mark> or less. The buses are also different, as it works on the same system as the MRT where you tap on and off and fares are generally similar to the MRT, unlike the flat fare for any bus journey in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This makes visiting all of the attractions in Singapore very cheap and I took advantage of my NUS student status, as this got me discounted or even free tickets to many of the museums of Singapore, with my favourites being the ArtScience Museum, the National Museum of Singapore and the Asian Civilisations Museum. There are also a lot of things to do that are almost completely free, such as seeing the natural beauty and wildlife of Singapore at places such as the Botanic Gardens or the Treetop Walk at MacRitchie, where you\u2019ll encounter a lot of wild monkeys. My personal favourite was taking a bumboat (\u00a32.28<\/mark> each way) to an island called Pulau Ubin, where we rented some bicycles and toured the almost-uninhabited island, where we found hidden shrines and a lot of wildlife, from monkeys to monitor lizards to crabs to herons!<\/p>\n\n\n

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A long-tailed macaque at Pulau Ubin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Another key part of my exchange was travelling around South East Asia as I was also to visit Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia during the semester. As Malaysia and Indonesia were so close to Singapore, it was easy for me to take day trips to Johor Bahru (JB) in Malaysia and Batam Island in Indonesia. Both JB and Batam were much cheaper than Singapore in terms of food and activities such as go-karting. Taxi prices were also lower, with 15-minute rides through Batam costing around \u00a31.50 <\/mark>(though you are on the back of a motorbike!)<\/p>\n\n\n

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Go-karting in Johor Bahru in Malaysia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Nongsa Beach in Batam Island in Indonesia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I visited Vietnam and Cambodia with my family at the end of the semester and I also went on a week-long trip to Thailand with my friends during recess week. We ended up going to Bangkok and Chiang Mai which are both absolutely beautiful places. We decided to use a budget airline for all of our flights such as Scoot or Thai AirAsia, with our flights from Singapore to Bangkok and then Chiang Mai to Singapore totalling around \u00a3200<\/mark>, though this would have been a bit cheaper if we booked earlier. We decided to get an AirBnB as there were 5 of us and this worked out as being cheaper than a hotel. We took advantage of the cheap transport options such as tuk-tuks (with prices starting from \u00a31<\/mark> for short trips) whilst we were there. Both places were a lot of fun, with Bangkok having such high energy levels and some beautiful Buddhist temples with Chiang Mai having its own distinct vibe with its old city. We even got to go to a sanctuary that rescues abused and mistreated elephants.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Grand Palace in Bangkok. Thailand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Elephants at a sanctuary in Chiang Mai, Thailand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Overall, living as a student at NUS is definitely cheaper than my experience as a student living in London during my first year, as many of my key outgoings such as rent, food and transport were a lot lower. However, the cost of living in Singapore for regular people is generally slightly higher than it is for London so I would probably be telling a different story if I didn\u2019t get on-campus accommodation at CAPT. But I\u2019m so glad that I did because I got to experience so many new things and make a lot of new friends. If you\u2019re thinking about a semester abroad, I would definitely go for it and I cannot recommend Singapore highly enough!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom Appleby<\/strong>
King\u2019s Student Money Mentor
Part of Money & Housing Advice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The King\u2019s Student Money Mentors blog shares our students\u2019 personal experiences and thoughts on money-related topics. Any reference, opinions or recommendations on a particular company\/brand are only the views of the student(s) who wrote the blog post. King\u2019s College London, the Money & Housing Advice service and the Money Mentor project do not share the views in the blogs nor endorse any of the companies mentioned. Readers should conduct their own research before using any companies mentioned in our blog posts.<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello again and welcome this blog post detailing my semester abroad at the National University of Singapore (NUS)! In this blog, I will tell you more about the university experience at NUS and how this compares to London, as well as how I got to experience some of the wonders of both Singapore and South … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “My Experience as a Study Abroad Student in Singapore”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-study-abroad","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/moneymentors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/moneymentors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/moneymentors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/moneymentors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/moneymentors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/moneymentors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":961,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/moneymentors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions\/961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/moneymentors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/moneymentors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/moneymentors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}