News Releases
82 Award Recipients, One Defence Community
13 August 2025
Minister for Defence Mr Chan Chun Sing presented scholarship awards to 82 recipients.
Minister for Defence Mr Chan Chun Sing presented The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Scholarship to six recipients, Public Service Commission (PSC) Scholarship (Engineering) – Defence and Security to two recipients, SAF Merit Scholarship to 16 recipients, SAF Engineering Scholarship to four recipients, Defence Merit Scholarship to 13 recipients, SAF Medicine Scholarship to eight recipients and Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) Scholarship to 33 recipients at a scholarship awards ceremony held at the Temasek Club this evening.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Chan highlighted the significance of the awards. He said, “We want our best, our brightest, our most committed – to serve in the armed forces, in the defence establishment, because it is one of the most challenging and yet most vital aspect for our survival and success, and that mission continues.”
Mr Chan also spoke about Singapore’s belief in growing defence leaders and building a strong SAF since independence. He stressed that the commitment to attract and develop people to serve in defence has not changed amidst changing external environment. He said, “Just this year alone, we will step up our recruitment, and we will bring in about 3,000 uniformed and non-uniformed personnel into MINDEF/SAF. Out of these 3,000, about 1,000 of them will be non-uniformed service personnel… that is the scale of just one cohort of people whom we bring in.”
In closing, Mr Chan expressed his hopes that the recipients will lead with humility and purpose. He said, “Your mission is not just trying to lead people who are like you. Our mission is to lead people from across all walks of life with different capabilities and different challenges and to build them into a cohesive and effective fighting force in service for our nation for us to keep defying the odds of history.”
This year's 82 scholarship recipients have demonstrated academic excellence and outstanding leadership qualities. They will be pursuing their undergraduate studies at reputable local and overseas universities. Upon completion of their tertiary education, recipients of the uniformed scholarships – The SAF Scholarship, the SAF Merit Scholarship, and the SAF Engineering Scholarship – will return to the organisation to assume a variety of challenging appointments that will groom them for senior command and leadership positions in MINDEF and the SAF. Recipients of the SAF Medicine Scholarship will return as Medical Officers and be groomed for senior medical positions in the SAF Medical Corps. The Defence Merit Scholarship recipients will return as Defence Executive Officers and be groomed for senior management positions in MINDEF by taking on varied job challenges to hone their skills in critical defence areas. The PSC Scholarship (Engineering) – Defence and Security, and DSTA Scholarship recipients will be groomed through multiple career pathways for engineering and technological leadership positions in the defence technology community.
Also present at the awards ceremony this evening were Senior Minister of State for Defence Mr Zaqy Mohamad and senior officials from MINDEF and the SAF, DSTA, DSO, CSIT, members of the PSC, school representatives, as well as the invited guests of the scholarship recipients.
More Resources
Fact Sheet: The Defence Scholarships and Profiles of Scholarship Recipients