Singapore, Apr 30: Singapore emerged as the top place to work and play among university students in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) grouping, a survey said Wednesday.

More than half of the 2,170 undergraduates polled, or 54.3 percent, said they would "most like to work" in Singapore among the 10 Asean nations. Malaysia was a distant second with 11.2 percent, followed by Brunei at 8.3 percent, Thailand at 7.1 percent, Vietnam at 4.7 percent and Indonesia at 2.5 percent, according to findings published in The Straits Times.

The Philippines was in seventh place at 2.1 percent. Laos garnered only 1.1 percent, followed by Myanmar at 0.7 percent and Cambodia at 0.4 percent. The region-wide survey, supported by the Asean Foundation, also found Singapore as the top choice for holidays, picked by 35 percent of respondents. Thailand was a second at 20.9 percent, and Malaysia followed with 13.9 percent. The study's co-authors, Assistant Professor Eric Thompson of the National University of Singapore and Chulanee Thianthai of Chulalongkorn University, said that destinations picked by students are different from those preferred by international tourists.

While tourists prefer Cambodia's Angkor Wat and Indonesia's Borobudur, Thompson told The Straits Times that Asean students "want to see modernity" more than ancient ruins.