National University of Singapore has been well-ranked in Times Higher and Shanghai Jiao Tong University global university rankings but still fail to attract top quality international students compared to other top-ranked universities like Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, Stanford , Oxford and Cambridge. The reason could be its lack of prestige as it is branded as a local national university like the National University of Ireland or the National Taiwan University. There is also competition from top foreign universities like INSEAD, ESSEC and Chicago in Singapore.

National University of Singapore has 30,000 students from over 100 countries with international students making up 20% of its undergraduate enrolment and 50% of its graduate enrolment. About 50% of its undergraduates have some overseas exposure via exchange programs and NUS Overseas Colleges, with about 20% of its undergraduates spending at least a semester abroad. Currently, the National University of Singapore has 5 NUS Overseas Colleges in USA, China, Sweden and India.The National University of Singapore also boast 40 double-degree or joint-degree programs with top universities internationally. The vision of the National university of Singapore is to be a leading global university centred in Asia.The most sought after degree programs at the National University of Singapore are the MBBS medical degree, LLB law degree and the Bachelor of Business Administration degree.