Apr 26, 2017 02:02 PM EDT By Emily Marks, UniversityHerald Reporter

Yale-National University of Singapore (NUS) College, the controversial Southeast Asian branch of the Ivy League institution, has become stricter than its mother school in terms of admissions. Last year, Yale accepted only 6.27 percent of applicants but NUS took only 5 percent.

Yale-NUS recently announced its 2016 acceptance rate for the current freshmen class at 5 percent. The branch campus has become more selective than Yale University.

In student newspaper Yale Daily News, it was reported that Laura Severin, director of admissions and financial aid for the Singapore-based college, was the one who shared the admissions data for the class of 2020. It was noted that Singaporeans continue to make up the majority of the pool of students in the class.

Students from the United States, India and China make up the three most common nationalities for the school's international cohort. The announcement came nearly a year after students were admitted as the school prepares to release decisions for prospective students - those who applied in the college's second and final admissions round for this year.

In an Aug. 2016 press release, Yale-NUS confirmed that the class of 2020 is composed of over 200 students from 40 countries. With this, the college's student body has increased to over 700 students from 53 countries through six continents.

According to Quartz, the decrease in the acceptance rate of Yale's Singaporean campus is important to understand because it shows that the efforts of Western universities in opening branch campuses around the world, especially in Asia, appears to be lucrative in terms of brand growth. However, it may also prove to be unethical for prestigious higher education institutions to set up a campus in another country, attract students with their brand but offer a less-than-stellar quality of teaching.

Reuters previously reported that Yale has been criticized for building a liberal arts college at restrictive Singapore. It was said that the college would be hindered by the authoritarian government, especially with its heavy restrictions on public speech and assembly.

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