If the planners of this orderly city-state had their way, it would become known as the "Boston of the East," a center of brainpower to match the brawn of Asia's manufacturers.

Over the past decade, Singapore has courted foreign universities with subsidies and partnerships, and showered aid on promising overseas students. It aims to create an education hub for students in Asia who want an international degree but may not have the income or the grades to study in the West. It has targeted an enrollment of 150,000 foreign students by 2015, up from about 80,000 currently.

These ambitions mirror the rapid growth in global education. The number of students studying abroad rose to 2.7 million in 2005, up from 1.3 million a decade earlier, according to a study released in September by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The most popular destination is the US, followed by Britain and Australia.

But Singapore's program to reverse this flow by outsourcing world-class education to its shores has run into trouble.

In June, the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia closed its Singapore branch only four months after matriculating its first class of 148 freshmen. Administrators said the project wasn't viable because of low enrollment and high operating costs in Singapore.

Last year, a prestigious research partnership with Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore was dissolved amid a row over subsidies. Efforts to woo other US schools with strong research capabilities have only yielded modest tie-ups, mostly in joint graduate programs like those of the University of Chicago's business school or Cornell University's hospitality management program.

Government officials say the payoff will come in a global reputation for education as well as the creative spark for companies seeking a research hub in Asia. That means importing smart students and underwriting innovation. "[T]alent is the most critical factor that will drive economic growth.… Singapore needs to attract the best talents to maintain our global competitiveness," says Aw Kah Peng, a director at Singapore's Economic Development Board.

Singapore isn't the only country in East Asia reaching out to foreign universities. Britain's University of Nottingham opened a campus in Ningbo, China, in 2005, and the University of Liverpool followed suit in Suzhou. Both offer British degree programs to Chinese students.

China may become a potential competitor, but Singapore enjoys a lead because of its reputation as a well-run country that can duplicate the best of the West, says Pang Eng Fong, dean of the business school at the Singapore Management University (SMU). "If there's going to be any world-class universities in this region over the long term, we're best positioned to deliver," he says.

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