29 April 2006
Local Students Are Not Sidelined
- I refer to the letters from Mr Lim Boon Hee “Are there anomalies in the policies?” (Today, 27 Apr) and Mr Khoo Lih-Han “Improve ratio of those admitted” (Today, 27 Apr).
- Admission to NUS, NTU and SMU, is based on merit. NUS and NTU base admission principally on students’ examination results. Some faculties conduct interviews and tests to assess applicants’ suitability for admission. NUS and NTU also have the flexibility to admit up to 10% of their undergraduate students, across faculties, based on students’ special merits and achievements apart from their examination results. These procedures are essentially similar to those of reputable overseas universities.
- The Government is committed to ensuring that one in four Singaporean students in each age-group is given a place at one of our three publicly-funded universities within a few years, up from one in five students previously.
- At present, about 70% of students from each A-level cohort enter NUS, NTU and SMU. Some of the remaining A-level graduates do not apply to the local universities, or are offered places but choose to pursue their studies abroad.
- The number of polytechnic students admitted to our local universities has doubled since 2002. It increased to over 10% of the polytechnic cohort in 2005. This trend will continue. The major portion of the increase in enrolment in our universities will in fact come from polytechnic graduates.
- Mr Khoo need not be concerned that the setting up of new JCs and of Republic Polytechnic will increase demand for places at our universities and reduce the percentage of successful applicants. The universities are committed to increasing their intake of local undergraduates within the next few years, so that a higher proportion of each cohort of students will be able to pursue university studies in Singapore.
Lim Chee Hwee
Director, Higher Education
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