Picking your polytechnic diploma: Most courses don’t last more than a decade, how should you decide?

SINGAPORE – Even as the proportion of Singapore students opting for polytechnic after their O levels has risen over the past decades, the landscape of their chosen disciplines has always been in flux.

Unlike junior colleges and universities, where subjects stay stable for decades, a polytechnic diploma programme takes in new students for a median of eight years before it is renamed, merged or discontinued. This means most are available for less than a decade.

This data is based on a dataset of 562 courses offered by Singapore’s five polytechnics from 1958 to 2025 compiled by The Straits Times. Delve into

the data in our story on disappearing diplomas

.

This fast-changing pace reflects the industry-focused nature of polytechnic education, which was first conceptualised in the 1950s as a means of addressing the Republic’s manpower needs.

Surveys to gauge what skills companies require predate the existence of Singapore’s first polytechnic, which opened its doors in 1958, and persist in the schools’ industry partnerships today.

As Singapore looks ahead to the next stage of its economic development and as prospective polytechnic entrants ponder options after receiving their O-level results on Jan 14, here are five key figures you should know.

More generalist courses, fewer specialist ones

Polytechnic course offerings exploded from just 11 courses in 1958 to a peak of 241 in 2016, before declining to 193 by 2025.

Since 2016, consolidation has been the name of the game.

The number of engineering courses first peaked in 2011, when prospective students had 54 such programmes to pick from.

The year 2017 and beyond saw the pruning of niche programmes on microelectronics, 3D interactive media and sustainable urban engineering.

In 2020, eight media, arts and design programmes – ranging from applied drama to creative writing – at Singapore Polytechnic were merged into a single course. Students would take a common curriculum in their first year before specialising in their second.

All of these form a trend towards generalism. As at 2025, there were 25 “common programmes” where students opt for a broad discipline like engineering or science before committing to a specific diploma programme in their second semester.

The majority of these were introduced in the late 2010s and early 2020s.

“The current generation of our learners has evolved,” says Dr Betsy Ng, lecturer at NTU’s National Institute of Education.

It is not like in the past, she adds, where graduates “stay in one place for their entire working lives for 40 years”.

Singapore Polytechnic graduate Eric Lai, 53, who completed his diploma in chemical process technology in 1994, has spent more than 20 years at Danish pump manufacturer Grundfos.

The regional managing director says the industry’s landscape shifts every decade. Things once seen as evergreen, like the oil and gas industry, are no longer sure bets. Still, he credits his coursework for giving him the building blocks for a lasting career.

Says NTU’s Dr Ng: “Technology tends to get obsolete pretty fast.”

She notes that polytechnics have expanded their focus beyond technical knowledge to include soft skills and other non-sector-specific competencies, as graduates must often adapt to a situation where one’s course material might be obsolete or irrelevant.

And demand for polytechnic courses is not shaped only by industry needs.

Temasek Polytechnic senior director Albert Yeo notes that demographic trends – decreasing post-secondary enrolment – meant that more specialised diplomas which were spun off from generalist courses to meet specific manpower needs were consolidated into their original diploma programmes.

These days, workers value flexibility as well and are more likely to job-hop, not only between companies but also between different industries, making generalist courses a more attractive prospect than niche offerings.

Short-lived experiments

While around half of the 562 polytechnic courses introduced since 1958 were offered for under eight years, about 11 per cent of courses (66 courses) were available for two years or less before they were either renamed, merged or discontinued, ST found.

Many of these courses came from Singapore Polytechnic’s earlier history in the 1950s and 1960s, when it offered a variety of short-lived non-diploma programmes such as certifications for secretarial work, shorthand and typewriting, welding and shipbuilding.

Among diploma-awarding programmes, however, some of the shortest-lived examples include Republic Polytechnic’s business and social enterprise (2019), Nanyang Polytechnic’s finance and insurance management (2000), Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s enterprise IT systems (2008), and Temasek Polytechnic’s chemical technology and instrumentation (1998) courses.

An inherent part of an industry-focused education is that most industries are constantly in flux.

The number of courses specialising solely in animation, visual effects or video games peaked between 2011 and 2019, with 12 courses offered in total then.

By 2025, just three such courses remained, something driven at least in part by the shifting fortunes of their respective industries. 

While the 2000s saw the Government court foreign companies like Lucasfilm, Koei Tecmo and Ubisoft, the 2010s were marked by high-profile closures that left a

dwindling number of options

for graduates.

Between 2010 and 2014, the number of courses with a specific focus on clean energy, sustainability or the environment peaked at 11. By 2025, only five remained, though modules on sustainability are now commonplace.

Global research consortium Climate Action Tracker has rated the Republic’s climate targets

as “highly insufficient” in its latest analysis in 2024

, after previously rating it “critically insufficient” in 2021 and 2022.

Similarly, the number of courses in biotech or biomedicine peaked at 17 in 2009. By 2025, these programmes had been consolidated into just 10 courses across the five polytechnics here.

While Singapore has made moves to jumpstart its biomedical sector, with high-profile initiatives like the launch of the Biopolis in 2004, its ambitions remain unrealised.

According to the 2024 joint autonomous universities graduate employment survey, graduates from courses in the sciences had a lower full-time permanent employment rate at 72.1 per cent, compared with the average of 79.5 per cent.

These graduates also had a lower monthly median salary at $4,125, compared with the graduate average of $4,500.

Nanyang Polytechnic deputy principal Esther Ho says the school’s periodic sector roadmapping is one key approach it uses to decide on its course offerings.

One of the school’s new courses for 2026 is the diploma in biomedical science with analytics, which “responds to the healthcare sector’s growing need for professionals who can bridge science and data analytics”, she says – a gap increasingly highlighted by the school’s industry partners.

The school has also launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) and business digitalisation specialisation for its diploma in business management.

Before the AI craze, there was informatics

Recent data indicates that polytechnics are betting on AI and data analytics becoming an increasingly important part of the Singapore economy. 

Four polytechnics offer courses in applied AI. The exception, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, offers a diploma in data science. Nine courses specifically focused on big data, AI, data science or analytics have been introduced since 2012.

However, AI and big data are only the latest trends in a long history of polytechnics embracing new nomenclature and buzzwords, in anticipation of the trends they believe will reshape the Singapore economy.

Before the AI craze, there was the embrace of courses with names focused on “informatics” (another word for the study of computational systems) or blending “computing” with another discipline.

Many of these emerged in the 2000s, as computer systems became increasingly ubiquitous in working life.

Republic Polytechnic business computing graduate Benjamin Chua says his course emerged at a time when “business people didn’t understand IT and vice versa”. 

The 36-year-old, who graduated in 2010 and is now a civil servant, adds: “In tech, things move very fast, so it’s natural for course offerings to change. Back then, there wasn’t this thing called the cloud.”

His course was one where second-year modules were all IT-focused and third-year courses were all business-focused – a split that would not make sense in today’s environment.

His diploma programme in business computing was replaced with one in business information systems in 2009. That, too, was replaced by a programme in enterprise cloud computing and management in 2025.

Many courses retain the same instructors and much of the underlying curriculum in broad strokes, even after a change in external branding.

Courses that go the distance

Not all bets on specialisation are short-lived experiments.

The first programmes specifically focused on aerospace engineering were introduced in 2003 at Singapore Polytechnic and Ngee Ann Polytechnic. By the late 2000s, such courses were offered at all five of Singapore’s polytechnics.

These course offerings coincided with Singapore’s rise as a regional air hub. Changi Airport opened its third terminal in 2008, increasing its annual handling capacity to 70 million passengers at the time.

At the same time, the country’s growing tourism sector meant a surge of hospitality-focused courses, as well as ones focused on culinary operations and outdoor education.

While most polytechnic diplomas do not last on course prospectuses for more than a decade, some have proven particularly enduring: 27 courses have lasted at least 30 years.

The longest continuously running programmes are Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s diplomas in mechanical engineering at 58 years, business studies at 57 years and electrical engineering at 45 years, as at 2025.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic is Singapore’s second-oldest polytechnic, and was originally founded as Ngee Ann College in 1963.

Other long-running courses include Temasek Polytechnic’s interior architecture and design (36 years), Singapore Polytechnic’s nautical studies (35 years), and Nanyang Polytechnic’s nursing (34 years).

Republic Polytechnic’s senior director of industry services Soh Lai Seng notes that changes to diploma programmes are often made in the light of announcements in government strategy, or in anticipation of a particular sector’s growing importance.

For instance, the school launched a diploma in supply chain management in 2005 in anticipation of the growing importance of logistics in Singapore’s economy. Since 1986, Singapore has been the busiest port in the world in terms of shipping tonnage.

After a 2020 government announcement that 50,000 jobs would be created over the next decade in the sustainability sector (including the high-tech agriculture and aquaculture industries), Republic Polytechnic renamed its environmental science course to environmental and marine science.

Similarly, the launch of a National Library Masterplan prompted Temasek Polytechnic to launch its diploma in information studies. Likewise, its diploma in retail and hospitality design was launched during the development of Singapore’s integrated resorts.

Change of the polytechnic student

Prior to the 1990s, one could be forgiven for imagining the average polytechnic student as a male engineering student.

In 1993, engineering students accounted for 59 per cent of the cohort because of the discipline’s clear advantages when it came to starting wages at the time.

Today, such a difference no longer exists. 

Fresh polytechnic graduates in the labour force had median salaries ranging between $2,700 and $3,200 depending on one’s course type, according to the 2025 polytechnic graduate employment survey released on Jan 15. Respondents were contacted six months after graduation.

Humanities and social sciences graduates commanded the highest figure, while engineers were at the middle of the pack at $3,000.

Over half (55.4 per cent) of those responding to the 2025 survey said they were pursuing or preparing to pursue further studies, and were not actively looking for jobs.

These institutes are also no longer as male-dominated as they used to be.

In 1993, there was a 1:0.66 ratio of men to women studying at Singapore’s polytechnics. By 2023, this ratio had narrowed to 1:0.88, with 37,714 male students to 33,376 female students.

While engineering students still form the largest segment of polytechnic students, at 27.9 per cent of 71,090 full-time students in 2023, the number of students opting for other disciplines has ballooned since the 1990s, according to data from the Department of Statistics.

This is because the 1990s and 2000s saw a wave of new courses that broadened the scope of vocational education beyond its original engineering focus, and looked at building up Singapore’s growing tech, healthcare, tourism and creative industries.

Temasek Polytechnic’s Mr Yeo says his school was founded in recognition of the growing importance of creative industries to Singapore’s economy. The school’s initial staff drew heavily upon the applied arts department of the now-defunct Baharuddin Vocational Institute.

And Temasek Polytechnic introduced the first interior design-focused diploma programme in 1990, as well as the first fashion-focused course in 1995. It also introduced the nation’s first and only law-focused diploma programme in 1993, which rebranded to a diploma in law and management in 2000.

Nanyang Polytechnic introduced the first nursing programme in 1992, as well as the first digital media-focused programme in 1996, a few years before the dot-com bubble burst in 2000.

The late 2000s saw a new wave of culinary operations, food science, outdoor education and hospitality entering the mix. The majority of these were taught at Republic Polytechnic and Temasek Polytechnic.

Shedding its stigma

The decades since the formation of the first polytechnic have also seen a gradual erosion of the stigma once directed at students opting for vocational studies, as well as a changing place for polytechnics in Singapore’s education system.

Nearly half, or around 49 per cent, of students admitted to polytechnics as part of the 2024 Joint Admissions Exercise were

eligible for junior college

, up from 40 per cent in 2014, according to the Ministry of Education.

Polytechnics now also offer students from the Normal (Academic) stream and the Institutes of Technical Education (ITEs) a

pathway for further studies

, through foundation programmes and direct-entry schemes. Continuing education programmes are also offered for adult learners to study through short and part-time courses.

Polytechnic graduates made up

more than 40 per cent

of the 18,500 Singapore citizens and permanent residents admitted to Singapore’s six universities in 2024 as full-time undergraduates.

Nearly half (48.9 per cent) of those responding to the 2024 polytechnic graduate survey said they were pursuing or preparing to pursue further studies, and were not actively looking for jobs.

Once seen as a terminal pathway for secondary school students to enter the labour force after tertiary studies, a growing section of Singapore society now sees the polytechnic as a stepping stone in a longer educational journey.