The long term future of our nation will be in for some serious trouble if capable professionals in the engineering/technology sectors are compensated so poorly. Science & technology forms the backbone that spearheads the industrialistion of any country. So it is really tragic that Engineering/Science faculties are being treated as the metaphoric 'dumping grounds' in universitys & polytechnics.
I remember being dispatched to an Engineering Course in
NTU despite nearly flunking my A level Physics. I had expected to go into FASS (my first choice) since I did reasonably well for my humanities subject & GP. Apparently the university (or perhaps the entire matriculation system in the greater scheme of things) decided that they would trust me to build a bridge more than they would trust me to learn about economics or political science. I know for a fact that Engineering faculties in other countries (while being equally rigorous academically in terms of lesson time), seem to attract a higher calibre students as reflected by their higher entry hurdles and Engineering graduates eventually move on to jobs which pay rather well. This unfortunately appears to be a Singaporean phenomenon.