Introduction To Singapore Homestay

Discerning parents shopping for accommodation for their children studying in Singapore would find student homestay, an attractive choice. Generally, such a service is offered with or without guardianship.

Several factors favour homestay as an ideal and sensible option over others such as hostels and dormitories. These include:

• Higher expectations of students and parents. They want the best in convenience and comfort, guardian care and support and service quality.
• Singapore’s growing status as a global education hub. This in turn spawns a vibrant and thriving industry specialising in homestay and guardianship targeted at international students.
• Increasing affluence in Asia. Youths from the rising economies of China, India, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Indonesia form the bulk of Singapore’s international students. Therefore, affluent parents are willing to invest for their children’s quality education including their homestay and guardian care in Singapore.

Why choose homestay?

A major concern of many parents of children studying abroad is their offspring’s accommodation. Parents are usually worried about the location or district where the house is sited, the accommodation type, the costs involved and the quality of the related services.

Hence, homestay in Singapore has an edge over other housing options available because:

• The guardian or house-parent to students ratio is low compared to say, that of a hostel. Therefore, the standard of guardian care and support is higher in comparison.
• The ambiance and environs of a typical Singapore Homestay accommodation (pictures) is of a higher quality than other alternative accommodation types. A Singapore homestay for instance gives students a home-away-home feel, living with an ordinary family in a typical Singapore household.
• Home-cooked meals and laundry and ironing services provided in a homestay are superior in quality.
• Homestay in Singapore provides students with greater personal touch, flexibility and space compared to other forms of student housing.

How to select a Singapore homestay - the Ideal?

Good planning and the student’s interest should be taken care of when considering the location and type of homestay. Before deciding on their choice, parents need to iron out several issues including:

1. Their budget or financial constraints, if any. Homestay accommodation with guardianship in Singapore ranges from SGD $1,000 based on current estimates.
2. Distance between the school and location of the homestay under review. Schools’ locations frequently coincide with main transportation axis that provides accessibility to bus or/and MRT ( Mass Rapid Transport, often known as Subway in the west ). Learn the transportation system in Singapore.
3. Amenities available in the vicinity of the homestay. Singapore residential districts provide access to MRT stations, taxi-stands, bus-stops and interchanges. Other amenities include public swimming pools, public gym, other sports facilities, cinemas, and shopping malls.
4. Quality of the homestay providers, guardians, house-parents or hosts. It is most important to consider the openness of homestay hosts towards receiving international students who may come from very different cultures. The level of care and support given by the host family to your child may directly affect his or her performance.
5. Condition and ambiance of the homestay premises. When reviewing homestay premises, the emphasis is placed on cleanliness, maintenance status especially of the student’s bedroom, toilet and shower facilities.
6. Services on offer such as Internet, laundry, meals and guardian care.
7. There are several types of homestay accommodation available in Singapore. Generally, this falls into two groups: a) Private Homes b) Public Housing or commonly known as HDB apartments.

HDB Apartments

HDB stands for Housing Board Development. HDB is Singapore’s brand of high quality public housing. HDB residential district has over the years benefited from Singapore Government initiative for city renewal. On our blog, you may learn more about HDB homestay in Singapore and recent HDB developments including international awards. Depending on locations, HDB homestay fees are generally priced lower compared to a private type homestay accommodation within the same vicinity. Pictures below show facilities in a public (HDB) residential district. Lastly I like to briefly mention the Singapore education system on the following section.

Singapore Education System

The Singapore government runs a comprehensive network of top-rate schools and universities. These cover a slew of courses ranging from pre-primary to tertiary level.

Public tertiary institutions include three universities: National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Management University and five polytechnics. Insead Business School and other renowned institutions maintain their Asian campuses in Singapore too. The private educational sector is thriving with a wide selection of schools and courses on offer.

Finally you can read more about Singapore Education System at our blog where we plan to provide frequent updates about public and private school system. I hope you have found this article useful in providing you guidance in selecting your homestay. Thank you for reading.

To help non-english speaking, our team is moving to produce mrsHomestay.com in multiple languages. Korean is the first of the asian languages is just been completed and put live on on the site. Following this in the coming months, we will also be translating mrsHomestay into Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Thai. Stay tune and watch out for it.

If you are korean, switched to mrsHomestay korean site now.

Wondering which is the better school in Singapore ? How do they rank against each other ? What are the criteria ? Ministry of Education website actually hosts a document most parents of international students seem not to know about.

Refer to the School Achievement Table and Honour Rolls 2007 for Secondary levels document for the answers to Singapore schools comparisons. The document sets out schools’ performance in various academic and non-academic domains.

Further to this, we like to add that finding a good homestay is AS IMPORTANT AS it is to enroll into a good, and reputable school. A quality homestay programme forms the support backbone for a student’s emotional and physical well being. While international students are placed in poor quality homestay, it is often reflected in school results.

mrsHomestay has developed programmes and also offer services to help international students with finding good homestay as well as suitable schools near homestay locations. Contact mrsHomestay student manager today if you have any enquiries.

You have signed up with mrsHomestay, and put up a basic profile. This is your personal page, and very soon you will receive a special URL & online badge which you can add to your email signature, or blog. What do you do next? Here are some tips to make it easier for international students and their parents to find you.

TIP 1 : UPLOAD YOUR PICTURES

This has to be the FIRST commandment Every international student and including their parents want to know the condition of the homestay, amenities near the homestay and if you live in a private condo, what are the facilities available. You would too, if you are sending your child abroad. You want to know she is safe and living in a good home.

This is so important to us that the next updates of the mrsHomestay will give preference to profiles with pictures, and display such on the DASHBOARD area when the student or parent logs in.

Some pictures suggestions,

• Show pictures of the room, living area
• Take some pictures of the neighbourhood - parks, SAFRA club, swimming pool etc
• Please don’t be shy, show pictures of yourself (guardian) if you can.
• Upload pictures of other students you host, of course with their permission.

We are extremely excited to launch the mrsHomestay portal. There are several new features which we have put into the site to help students and guardians find each other. More new upcoming features are planned, and our calendar of incremental updates are planned all way till end 2008.

If you are our partnered hosts reading this post, this is an excellent platform for you to showcase your homestay and guardianship services. We are building more tools on this site to help you connect with students and their parents in Asia.

For the international student and their parents, these new features are here to make it easier to browse our database of guardians and homestay hosts, and in a manner which is safe and transparent.

Powerful Advance Search Facility

View Recommended Homestay/Guardian Profiles

Brand New Guardian / Homestay Profiles

Surf a growing community of Singapore homestay guardians. These guardians open their homes for homestay and provide other services such as laundry, and meals.

Tools to Help You Remember

Add-To-Favourites. As you browse through many profiles of guardians and homestays, you may want to bookmark some of those profiles to allow easy access.

We are continuing to build more features to help international students and their parents connect with Singapore guardians and homestay families. In the next few months, we will enable mrsHomestay.com with other asian languages.

Please feel free to add your comments.

Homestay is a popular choice for tourists looking to experience the everyday buzz of a typical Singaporean heartlander. The home cooked food and the opportunity to experience how we live our day to day to where we shop adds up for these non average tourists. However this is not my subject, at least not the tourists no.

If you are a parent, undecided between choosing a hostel or homestay accommodation for your child I hope this post helps

Why Choose Homestay In Singapore ?

Homestay provides the perfect environment where your child can enjoy family care, love and attention. It is important that during the absence of parents, your child can continue to receive attentive care and emotional support from a guardian - a foster parent.

Attentive Care, Family Support

In a hostel where the ratio of a guardian to students is typically high, it is a challenge for a guardian to develop strong bonds with every child. In a homestay, it is different. The guardian who is also the homestay host has many opportunities to develop a healthy relationship with the student. This can happen when spending family times together such as family goes out shopping, or during meal times and even special outings on the weekends.

Feel Right At Home with Home Cook Food

Not to be overlooked is home cook food. Your child may have special diet that requires special attention or simply a special touch put in by the guardian to prepare a home country dish just for the child. I know of a guardian in our programme who prepared a korean dish certain day of the week just so the korean student will light up with delight. Having studied abroad and in my past life, sent on short job stints overseas, I totally appreciate home cooked food - Home cooked food never fails to warm your heart.

Monitoring and Assess Development

An important role for a guardian, on top of providing for the students basic needs such as food and lodging, family environment is to provide guidance to the child in decision making. Frequently this can be done in consultation with the parent. The guardian may also periodically feedback to the parent about the student’s progress in school.

About mrsHomestay Student Services Programme

Our programme is designed for international students below 18 years old. The focus of the programme has been to work with Singapore homestay partners and parents of students so that the student has an enriching experience studying in Singapore as well as helping him/her achieve the original intent of him/her coming to Singapore.

START YOUR HOMESTAY SEARCH NOW?

Housing Development Board (HDB) has won the The United Nations Public Service Award (UNPSA). UNPSA is a prestigious international award in recognition of excellence in public service. The award recognizes HDB’s contribution to successfully provide over 80 per cent Singaporeans with affordable quality flats, with 95 per cent of these owning these homes.

The Singapore government has in fact invested considerably over the years, and engaged in major makeover works for older estates. Hence these residential areas are included in the continual island state renewal. In Yishun ( northern part of Singapore) where I used to live, the blocks surrounding what used to be my home had undergone several renovations from re-painting works, lifts upgrades to erecting new sheltered walkways leading to the closest bus stops. These upgrade programmes have greatly maintained the quality of the estate and the comfort of the neighbourhood.

In newer estates, the line is also greying between what used to awe struck design that belonged exclusively to private apartments and those that wear the face of a typical HDB building. Recent HDB residential areas now boast bolder designs with colours, and comes with condo-like facilities even.

The high quality standards of HDB apartments has of recent become a natural magnet drawing a growing number of foreign students. And I suppose with a booming real estate and sky rocket rental rates, HDB apartments have become even more attractive.

by Derek Yeo - SINGAPORE - 26 May 2007

THE ABRUPT announcement by the University of New South Wales - Asia to close shocked Singaporeans and students alike. Students, especially the 148 enrolled in various courses at UNSW Asia were devastated.

The university blamed low enrolment numbers a primary reason behind its decision. For its first semester since opening about three months ago, it planned an intake of 300 students.

At a meeting organised by the university management for affected parents, students and staff, a gentleman reportedly lamented, “It’s verging on the fraudulence, when you took people’s money, re-locate staff to Singapore and you have reasons to believe; and have real concerns, that you’re not able to deliver.”

Looking at the situation in perspective, I do not think UNSW is being fraudulent. Now that its management has decided that its business plan has gone awry and to cut losses, the university has to close, it must live up to its obligations to their students. Enrolled students must be aided in every possible manner to continue their studies.

Enrolment is similar to a contract. Every enrolment obligation - student’s or university’s - must be honoured.

As Singapore’s Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam put it,”This is their (UNSW’s) decision, it’s their business. They made the decision to pull out, they have to deal with the parents and students.”

Other renowned institutions - INSEAD, Chicago School of Business for examples - have succeeded and flourished in Singapore, albeit a competitive education hub. But why UNSW-Asia has not?

In the coming weeks and months, many reasons and causes will be offered for the UNSW-Asia’s failure. Whatever they are, one that will top the list must be: Poor business plan.

Homestay hosts are often requested to act as guardians for the international students they are hosting at their home. There are some confusion as to what exactly is the role of a guardian and his/her responsibilities. Apart from homestay hosts, where a host primarily takes care of of the living conditions of the student the guardian takes the place of a parent when taking care of the student. This will typically involves the following :

FREE Online Homestay Host/Guardian Registration is now Open

What is a homestay?

Homestay is an accommodation option we offer international students through a partnership with local families and individuals. We select hosts to be part of our Homestay Program through an online registration process that is completely FREE. You may choose to offer additional services such as guardianship for international students below the ages 18 years old. Based on your preferences, our job will be to match a suitable student.

Among the services we run, it includes an in-home interview prior to finalizing the student’s accommodation placement with the selected host. Students pay hosts a monthly fee, and hosts provide a comfortable home, meals and a opportunity to experience life in Singapore along with the food delights if you wish - the satay, mee siam, hokkien mee.

With homestay, both the students and the hosts have to make a commitment to try to create a lasting arrangement. Hosts adjust their homes and schedules; students come from thousands of miles away, trusting they will have a happy, safe, clean environment to live in while they pursue
their education.

Homestay situations require honest effort on the part of both student and host, to try to communicate with each other. There are times when a lack of understanding of culture or language can create frustration and unhappiness. For instance, the host may be expecting the student to participate in all the family activities of the household, when the student does not wish to do so. Or, the host family may be too busy to include the student in everything.

What are Homestay host’s (your) responsibilities?

In return, we expect students to abide by house rules, program guidelines and responsibilities. As with any relationship, there will be differences in behaviour and experience. Hosts and students should not expect all homestay arrangements to be the same.