Faster track for Ngee Ann Poly students to earn bachelor’s degree after taking university modules

SINGAPORE - Students joining Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) in the new academic year in 2025 will have more room to customise their learning through more majors and specialisations.

The polytechnic is also allowing its students to read modules from some universities from their third semester, potentially shaving off one year from their degree programmes due to module exemptions.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore Management University (SMU) are the latest additions to the list of local universities that NP has tied up with for this “fast track” scheme, called the University Pathway Programme.

About 50 students will benefit from this programme on a yearly basis.

So far, in the past two years, 10 students from the polytechnic have taken up modules from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).

They also have opportunities to work on projects with university professors and researchers.

This comes as 63 per cent of NP’s graduates made it to the six local universities in 2024, up from 48 per cent in 2021, said Mr Mah Wee Beng, NP’s deputy principal and registrar, during a media briefing on Jan 8.

For example, third-year information technology students can read science and humanities modules at SUTD during their last semester at NP.

Students enrolled in eight NP courses such as design, biomedical engineering and immersive media will also get to read modules from SMU from 2025, and NUS from 2026.

NP students who read SUTD modules will be granted conditional admission into SUTD, if they maintain the minimum academic requirements which differ across the degree programmes.

Students who read modules from NUS and SMU are not guaranteed admission, but they can be exempted from some modules if they later enrol in the two universities.

Ms Emma Liew, 21, who graduated from NP in May 2024 with a diploma in engineering science, attended SUTD to read two modules – one each from physics and mathematics. She did this during her one-month school breaks in her second and third year of study at the polytechnic.

Although taking those modules ate into her free time, she said it benefited her as she was accepted earlier into SUTD in September 2023, while still completing her final-year polytechnic project.

Since she had already completed two SUTD modules, her workload was reduced compared with her peers in university.

“The concern about getting into a university is definitely a real thing in poly. But because of this programme, I was given a bit of a head start, so I didn’t have to worry that much,” said Ms Liew, who is studying engineering product development at SUTD.

The University Pathway Programme is one of several initiatives by NP to give students more flexibility in carving their curricula.

One upcoming pilot would allow students from five diploma courses under the polytechnic’s schools of engineering and infocomm technology to take a second major in business.

Mr Lim Kok Kiang, NP’s chief executive and principal, said this is the first time that polytechnic students can pursue two majors, and this will equip students with more career and education opportunities. For a start, 25 students will be accepted.

Ms Claira Han, 17, hopes to take up a second major in business to gain deeper expertise.

She will begin the first year of her engineering diploma course in mechatronics and robotics at NP in April 2025, after completing the Polytechnic Foundation Programme.

This scheme allows Secondary 4 Normal (Academic) students to apply directly to polytechnics for a foundation year instead of completing Secondary 5 and the O levels.

“This second business major would further broaden my knowledge and give me an edge over my peers,” she said.

In addition, NP will offer tracks of specialisations across half of its 36 diploma courses, to allow students to sharpen their expertise from their second year.

For example, design students can choose to specialise in architecture or product innovation. Data science students can choose between data engineering or generative artificial intelligence (AI) for their specialisation.

Mr Lim said NP hopes to develop graduates who are versatile and skilled in multiple disciplines.

“I think this mindset of owning your learning, owning your path forward, is a very important one...

“It will stand them in good stead in this world which is highly volatile and uncertain, where they will need to do multiple upskilling and reskilling over a period of time in their careers, and even do career pivots,” he said.

Mr Mah said students have shown a growing interest in new areas of learning and deepening their skills.

By May 2025, one in four of the polytechnic’s students will graduate with a minor alongside his or her diploma.

Also, almost half of the 2025 graduating cohort would have completed at least one learning unit for the minor programme. Students need to complete three learning units to graduate with a minor.

Said Mr Mah: “It tells us that our students appreciate having choices in their learning beyond their chosen domain of study.”

Correction note: In an earlier version of the story, we said that students under the University Pathway Programme could read modules from some universities during their final semester instead of from their third semester. This has been corrected.

We also said that NP students who read modules from NUS and SMU will be granted conditional admission into the universities. This has also been corrected.