SAF Engineering Scholarship

No, the SAF Engineering Scholarship is a top-tier scholarship awarded by MINDEF/SAF to attract talent to join the SAF as military engineers on the Military Domain Expert Scheme (MDES).

The SAF Scholarship [uniformed] and the PSC Scholarship (Engineering) [non-uniformed] are the ones awarded by PSC.

SAF Engineering Scholarship: For engineers with the interest and commitment to join the Singapore Armed Forces as military engineers. You will be groomed as military leaders with a deep specialisation in engineering on the Military Domain Expert Scheme (MDES). You will assume a range of challenging appointments in MINDEF/SAF. In addition, there will be opportunities to be rotated to the Defence Technology Community (DTC) to augment the build-up of engineering expertise in the Defence-technology ecosystem.

PSC Scholarship (Engineering) – Defence & Security: Offered by Public Service Commission (PSC) for pre-tertiary students and undergraduates (as mid-term scholarship) keen on an engineering career in the Public Service. You can find out more about it here.

DSTA Scholarship: For budding engineers and scientists with leadership qualities who are passionate about Defence Science and Technology. Upon graduation you will embark on your career at the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) and DSO National Laboratories.

For Males: Applications for the 2025 scholarship cycle have been opened since 1 August 2024, and will close on 30 April 2025. Should you be shortlisted, you will be called up for the Selection Board between Jan to May for the SAF Engineering Scholarship.

For Females: Applications for the 2026 scholarship open on 1 April 2025, and close on 31 August 2025. You are strongly encouraged to apply in the final year of your studies, as successful candidates (offered the scholarship provisionally) are required to go through Basic Military Training (BMT) in January. There will be up to three rounds of interviews. (1) The first round of interview will be held in September/October to assess your suitability for the scholarship. Successful candidates will be offered the scholarship on a provisional basis before enlisting for BMT the following year. (2) Selected candidates may be requested to attend a second round of interview to assess their fit for the military and assess their academic performance. (3) The final round of interview will in June to assess your military performance in OCS, before your scholarship is confirmed.

You may submit your scholarship application at https://go.gov.sg/mindef-saf-scholarship.

The selection board looks for candidates with leadership potential, good character, commitment to serve Singapore and Singaporeans, and a keen interest to pursue a challenging and fulfilling profession with MINDEF/SAF.

As we are looking for bright young talent to take up top leadership appointments in the SAF, you must perform well in BMT, and qualify for OCS. Failure to gain entry to OCS would be a veto criterion for the scholarship.

Yes, PRs who will take up Singapore Citizenship can apply for the scholarship. They should be Singapore Citizens should they be successful to be awarded the scholarship.

Yes, MINDEF/SAF benchmarks the results of such equivalent qualifications against that of the GCE ‘A’ levels.

The bond is six years and will take immediate effect after you graduate and return to service. Consistent with other scholarship awarding agencies where bond is imposed, the period of studies is not counted towards the fulfilment of the bond.

You are expected to apply for universities of your choice as admission is dependent on individual merit. You should also arrange to sit for the necessary pre-admission tests such as the SAT, where necessary.

You may request for an extension of the deadline on the basis that you are being considered for a scholarship and are pending an outcome. Many established universities are familiar with our scholarship selection process and are likely to consider an extension.

You may disrupt for studies within the first year of enlistment, after completing the common leadership training. This is to allow you to contribute as military engineers as early as possible after acquiring the requisite engineering knowledge and skills from your tertiary education.

As a guide, you may depart for studies in August/September if you are proceeding to US universities, and end September if you are proceeding to UK universities. If you choose to pursue your studies in other countries, your disruption date would commensurate with the course commencement date.

Yes, you are allowed to pursue a Master’s Degree in most disciplines (except Medicine, Dentistry and Architecture) if you meet the eligibility criteria and complete it within the stipulated study period of four years. You can pursue a double major if you are able to complete your studies within the stipulated study period of four years.

You can choose the university and course of study. However, as this is a military engineering scholarship, you will need to choose a course of study that is relevant to your Service and vocation. Some common courses our SAF Engineering Scholarship recipients pursue are:

• Aeronautical, Chemical, Civil, Computer, Electrical & Electronic, Marine, Mechanical Engineering

• Computer Science

• Material Science

• Mathematics

• Naval Architecture

• Physics

Currently, the SAF recalls our scholars during the summer vacation for attachments in SAF units. Through this, you can keep updated with the developments in the SAF. Also, you will be assigned a mentor prior to graduation, who will be attached to you for several years upon your return from studies. You will be scheduled for route of advancement courses to prepare you to take up your respective appointments upon return.

Yes, you may indicate which Service you would like to join. Your suitability for the respective Service will be based on your individual merit.

The MDES is a uniformed service scheme for SAF regulars, designed to allow Military Experts (MEs) to develop deep expertise and specialisation in key military domains like engineering and intelligence. As military personnel, MEs will continue to bear arms and be deployed in operational roles when required. MEs can enjoy a full career up to age 60.

An SAF Engineer is both an SAF officer and a military engineer expert by profession. As leaders to the engineering and technical workforce, SAF engineers are directly responsible for their performance and contributions towards sharpening and sustaining the cutting edge technologies applied in the SAF.

The unique operational-technical experiences that our SAF engineers acquire when they are deployed in SAF missions would provide them the essential competence to conceptualise and bring to bear robust engineering and logistics support solutions for the SAF’s varying range and scale of complex operations such as Humanitarian Relief Missions and multi-national military exercises. They will have a significant and meaningful role to play as the technological leaders in the SAF to drive the development and assure the highest state of operational effectiveness for the diverse range of the SAF’s land, naval, air assets, including our secret edge capabilities.

There will be many unique opportunities for you to develop professionally through job rotations, thereby stretching your potential to the fullest. These opportunities include command appointments (leadership focused) such as base commands, as well as engineering specialist appointments (engineering expertise focused) where you will anchor a specific deep engineering domain expertise.

Other than career development through the job rotations and operational deployments, you will also go through various engineering and military leadership courses both locally and overseas at specific points in your career to hone and deepen your engineering application knowledge to prepare you for higher leadership appointments.

On top of this, there may be opportunities to be exposed to platform acquisition project management in Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) or research and development work in DSO National Laboratories. These unique opportunities provide our engineers with a wide exposure of defence science and technology work in MINDEF/ SAF.

As you are applying for a military scholarship, it is mandatory for you to undergo military training in order for us to assess your suitability as military leader. At the same time, we recognise that serving in the military is a path less trodden.

During BMT, you will be training with other female trainees. You will be equipped with basic soldiering skills and can expect to go through key events such as field camp, grenade throwing, urban operations to name a few. You will also be trained physically and inculcated with a sense of military discipline.

Training would be tough but you would develop resilience and fitness through endurance and physical training exercises so that you can cope with the training both physically and mentally. With a positive mind set and strong bonds forged with your platoon mates, you will be able to pull through the training and excel in BMT.

During officer cadet training, you will pick up knowledge of military management and be given the opportunity to hone your leadership skills and capability as a commander.

We recognise that joining the SAF is a big leap from your civilian life, and everyone will start off with differing fitness levels. As such, the SAF adopts a progressive training approach to level everyone up to the requisite fitness level. With a positive mind-set, good teamwork and the bonds forged with your platoon mates, we are certain that it will help you pull through the training and excel in BMT.

Entry into OCS is based on numerous considerations such as organisational requirements, your military performance, your commanders’ recommendations, education qualifications and medical fitness.