SINGAPORE - Engineering students from Singapore Polytechnic (SP) will be able to take some university-level modules in their field of study from April under a new programme.
Under the programme, announced on Monday (Jan 13), up to 40 students from SP's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering will have the opportunity to take modules taught by the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) during their polytechnic studies.
These university-level modules will count towards a student's graduation requirements in SP. To be eligible, students have to meet certain grade point average requirements, the three education institutes said in a joint statement.
SP's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering has a cohort size of about 800 for 2020.
To be eligible for the programme, students need a grade point average of 3.6 out of 4, at the end of their first year of polytechnic studies, and be selected through an interview. Students should also preferably have a minimum GCE O level score of C6 for Additional Mathematics.
SP's partnership with SUTD is called the SP-SUTD Pathway Programme, and will allow up to 20 students to complete the regular SP curriculum in about five semesters, instead of the usual six. They will take the SUTD modules in their final semester. These modules will be taken alongside SUTD students in their freshman year.
In SP's tie-up with NUS, up to 20 students will be able to take NUS modules in the final semester of their polytechnic studies.
Mr Loh Yew Chiong, the polytechnic's senior director in the engineering cluster, said that the partnerships with the two universities "will strengthen the education experience for our students, and stand them in good stead in their careers".
"We will consider rolling out similar programmes for other SP courses in the near future if student interest is high and student outcomes are positive," he added.
SUTD said that it has worked with polytechnics to offer their students its university modules before.
Last year, the university collaborated with SP and Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) to offer selected students a couple of SUTD first-year modules.
The students were pursuing diplomas related to architecture, computing and engineering from SP, or NP's engineering science diploma.
They would take the modules during their semester vacations, on top of their normal diploma curriculum.
Correction note: This article has been edited for clarity.
