SINGAPORE ~ An Indonesian student who committed suicide after stabbing his Singaporean professor had lost a coveted regional scholarship a month earlier, their university said.

David Hartanto Widjaja learned in February that his ASEAN undergraduate scholarship, which covered his fees and gave him an annual allowance of S$5,800 (US$3,700), had been revoked.

The final-year engineering student stabbed his professor, Chan Kap Luk, in the back before slitting his wrists and jumping off a pedestrian bridge at the Nanyang Technological University on Monday.

A university spokeswoman could not confirm if Chan was involved in the decision to revoke Widjaja’s scholarship. The professor, who was said by the university to be in a stable condition, supervised the student’s final-year course project.

The ASEAN scholarship, named after the 10-member Association of Southeast Nations, is offered to top students in the region who wish to study in Singapore, the group’s wealthiest and most technologically-advanced member