New polytechnic pathway lets students explore business, IT and engineering before specialising

SINGAPORE - Students joining Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) who are undecided on what diploma to pursue will be able to get a taster of three different fields – engineering, business and technology – in the latest of polytechnic common entry programmes.

NYP has launched a new programme called the common business and technology programme, giving students more flexibility to explore different courses before deciding what they want to study.

It is the latest addition to the growing number of common entry programmes, which are designed for students to explore various diploma courses within a specific disciplinary cluster before specialising in a chosen field.

For example, at Singapore Polytechnic’s common engineering programme, students get to explore all seven diplomas within the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering before choosing their diploma at the end of Year 1.

NYP’s new programme cuts across three schools – business, information technology and engineering – and will be open for application during the upcoming Early Admissions Exercise in June 2025 for those entering poly in 2026. It did not specify how many students will be part of the first intake.

Students who join the programme will take a mix of modules from all three fields in their first semester – such as business communication, programming and user experience design.

After getting a taste of each discipline, students can choose one of the three schools to specialise in from their second semester onwards.

NYP principal and chief executive Russell Chan said this new programme will help students to make an informed choice when selecting their diploma, amid overwhelming options after secondary school or Institute of Technical Education.

“While existing common entry programmes allow students six months to one year to develop broad-based skillsets before choosing their preferred diploma, these common entry programmes remain domain-specific,” Mr Chan said, adding that NYP’s new programme allows students “to explore and have a taster of three different areas”.

Common entry programmes were first introduced in 2017, and have become a popular option for students, with about 30 per cent of polytechnic students beginning their studies in such courses. These programmes typically give students one or two semesters to build foundational skills before choosing a diploma to pursue.

With NYP’s new programme, there are now 26 common entry programmes across the five polytechnics in Singapore.