Kelvin Teo
The sky's the limit for our graduates as we look outwards beyond our shores - Photo credits - Hakim87
According to the NUS website for the student exchange programme, the “knowledge and experience” students gain during their overseas exchange will be valuable to future employers. NUS has other overseas exchange initiatives besides the student exchange programme. It has established the NUS overseas college in Bio Valley, Philadelphia, which is home to USA’s prominent medical research institutions. Students attending the college will take entrepreneurship or biomedical sciences domain-related courses at the University of Pennslyvania.
NUS has also established another overseas college in Silicon Valley, the hub in San Francisco Bay area for technological start-ups. And students will study entrepreneurship and discipline-related courses at Stanford University.
The benefits from participating in such programmes are immeasurable, and such contribute towards producing graduates with widened horizons. However, in order to produce globally savvy graduates, we have to constantly seek to build on our partnership with overseas universities, to take the overseas student exchange to a new level.
A former French housemate of mine is a Masters student in engineering at the École centrale de Lyon, widely considered to be one of the most prestigious French Grandes écoles (elite schools) of engineering. One unique aspect of his Masters programme was that there was an agreement between his school and the University of Queensland to mutually recognise the Masters programme in engineering of each other. This essentially means that he could do his Masters at the University of Queensland, whilst paying the fees he would usually pay for the programme in France. Ultimately, upon completion of his course at the University of Queensland, he will earn his Masters from the latter institution, and with that, a Masters from his school in France according to the terms of the mutual recognition.
The exchange is reciprocal in nature. A student from the University of Queensland could go to École centrale de Lyon and read the programme, whilst paying the fees he will usually do in Australia, and earn degrees from both École centrale de Lyon and the University of Queensland.
At the undergraduate level, possibilities can be explored to replicate the aforementioned University of Queensland-École centrale de Lyon agreement. The Honours programme, in our local institutions can be explored for instance, in mutual recognition with overseas institutions. That means a local student can spend the years leading to his bachelor degree (without honours) in the local institution, and his Honours year in the foreign institution that is in partnership with, and which mutually recognises the undergraduate programme of the local institution. In such a partnership, the payment of tuition fees should remain pegged at what the student pays at the local institution, and it will eventually lead to the award of Honours degree by both institutions.
What are the advantages of such an arrangement? The obvious one is the broadening of horizons and gaining of invaluable experience similar to that which can be achieved for the student exchange programme. The second advantage is that students can take advantage of the expertise in the partner university, which is either rare or non-existent in our local institutions. For instance, if there exist a reciprocal agreement for mutual recognition of the Honours programme in Geography between our local institution and the University of Queensland, local geography students interested in mining can elect to do their Honours project at Queensland which has research collaborations with mining and resource giant, Rio Tinto group for instance, or other top universities in Australia with expertise in the discipline. Australia is resource-rich and mining is an important primary industry and contributor to the economy, hence its universities would have a substantial amount of expertise in the discipline. Hence, if the student is considering pursueing a particular research interest after he graduates at the postgraduate level, he can consider doing his Honours year in the partner university if the latter is world renowned in that particular discipline. Such an experience will provide the student with a springboard in his postgraduate career.
The other advantage is that students who wish to consider career options in the countries of the partner universities may consider joining the partnership programme leading to the award of a degree by the latter. Having an Honours degree, for instance, from a familiar institution, and considering all other factors equal (in terms of previous work experiences, age, etc), will put the graduate at an advantage over other international applicants with degrees from foreign institutions. Such a phenomenon could perhaps be attributed to the headhunters’ or recruiting staff’s preferences for graduates from local institutions especially if the latter is known for being strong in the relevant discipine.
Such a partnership if materialises can also benefit overseas Singaporeans who are pursueing degrees at partner universities overseas. In places such as Australia or the United Kingdom whereby the currency is stronger than the Singapore dollar, the costs of living in the form of living expenses, accomodation and miscellaneous fees is substantial. In addition, the latter could be home-sick, missing relatives and typical Singapore cuisine when overseas. Thus, it could be beneficial if he takes advantage of such a partnership programme and do his Honours year in our local institution, where they can be close to friends and relatives, and save on expenses but at the same time earn Honours degrees from the local and partner institutions.
Last, but not least, the process of mutual recognition will eventually lead to institutions tailoring their undergraduate degree programmes in a way so as to make them more globally relevant. In such mutual recognition of programmes leading to equivalency of Honours degrees awarded for instance, if there is an expectation of institution A on institution B to train the former’s students according to its standards, the latter would have to tailor its programme in such a way that it meets its partner’s expectations, and vice versa. Thus, the more partner overseas universities that our local institutions enter an agreement with, the more globally relevant will be the latter’s programmes. The degree programmes can be made globally relevant in two ways – one, for the years leading to the last Honours year for instance, our local institutions would prepare our local students in a way that would better equip them with necessary knowledge for the Honours years in partner institutions, two, the Honours year could be designed in a way that it would meet the academic requirements of the partner institutions, for the award of equivalent Honours degrees by both institutions.
Our local institutions have come up with initiatives that has enriched the lives of our students through gaining of invaluable experiences gleaned from a short stint in overseas institutions. While that is beneficial for our students and their future careers, there is more that can be done to take our partnership with overseas partner institutions to the next level that could possibly allow our graduates to earn degrees from such institutions, which will springboard their careers and put them ahead of the game vis-à-vis their peers.
I believe NUS do have such programmes. There’s this Masters partnership with the Ecole Polytechnique in France. Not sure if it’s still offered, but I know a few years ago my friend applied for it.
And then there’s the ANU-NUS joint degree programme. For this, the NUS student will study his/her first three semester at NUS, the next three at ANU, and then back to NUS for his/her honours year.
Are these the kind of programmes you’re referring to?
I am aware for the joint honours programme in NUS with ANU-NUS.
But i was actually referring to our local institutions in general, SMU, NTU.
I am aware of the joint programmes, but I think the closest programme that fits the description in the above article is the NUS-UNC joint programme.
http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/undergrad/toknow/academic_requirements/joint_degree_unccabt.html
For the NUS-ANU programme, they are two that I am aware of as stated in the NUS site, Joint Philosophy/BA Arts and Joint Economics/Actuarial studies. The caveat as such is that the students have to be double majors.
The fact is that eventually not all students will end up doing double majors.
I was actually driving at a discipline-specific partnership..like a chemical engineering programme partnership leading to honours degrees by both partners.
I think the UNC-NUS programme is a good blueprint to work on as compared with the ANU-NUS programme.
ANU-NUS programme, especially the philosophy joint and economics/actuarial studies joint are unnecessary prohibitive and selective. Only top students are allowed entry.
From the NUS page on the programme
http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/undergrad/toknow/academic_requirements/joint_degree_unccreq.html
“A student will have up to the end of the 3rd semester to declare one of the joint BA majors or switch to the joint BA major. He or she must have obtained a minimum CAP of 4.0 at that time and has the Intent to pursue Honors. Students will need to stay a minimum of 2 semesters up to a maximum of 4 semesters at the host university.”
Well i mean ok, a CAP of 4.0 may be a little bit hard for some, but at least it is more reasonable than the joint ANU-NUS programme that has high barriers of entry.
Thirdly, what I am not really in favour of in regards to the ANU-NUS programme is that the student does not do his research or honours thesis at the partner university. ANU has a solid reputation for research, if you look up the Shanghai-Jiaotong evaluation for its research, not only in arts, but in the medical field with world class institutions such as the John Curtin School of Medical Research.
In fact, the NUS-UNC arrangement has a similar limitation with the Honours thesis having to be done in NUS. Put it that way, in the article I was argueing for an arrangement in which the locat institutions tailor the degree programmes (three years) to prepare students for their Honours work in partner universities leading to honours from NUS and partner unis if the degree requirements are both mutually recognized.
After spending time overseas, I somehow realised that the nature of expertise in NUS is in a sense dictated by SIngapore’s needs, and there may not be expertise in certain areas, even if you consider certain sub-disciplines within the life sciences itself. Sometimes it is a difficult to find a research supervisor to supervise in such cases. At least, if the student can pursue his honours in partner universities and work with a world renowned research group/supervisor, the skys the limit. I would think the arrangement that I suggested in the article would work in the favour of those who are considering a postgraduate career in their research field.
On the ANU-NUS partnership, there is also the openings under Science faculty, which I’m pretty sure have no requirement of double major. But it still has that ridiculously high CAP requirement (and the student must also be under USP and SPS).
That being said, I’m not sure how this double major thing is counted — whether it’s a NUS thing or an ANU requirement. For NUS, doing a double major is an insane burden. But for ANU, double major is simply taking three third-year courses in the relevant discipline (if what my friend told me is accurate). There are some second-year courses as well, but it’s kinda included in a general prerequisite/breadth requirement. So the ANU second major is not too far from a NUS minor. And that’s considering the fact that the standard ANU semester has a load of only four courses. No wonder I’ve heard of people easily taking up triple majors…
I suppose, in a way, it does make sense that, for the ANU-NUS programme, the honours year is done in the home university. After all, the first three years have already been evenly split. And for the offer under Science, the students have to take up research projects in ANU, which thus allow them to establish research network with the people in Australia. Not sure about those offered under the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
I’m not sure what barriers there will be for a home university to recognise an honours award conferred by a foreign university, but I can imagine it won’t be easy to set up, particularly given the rigid nature of the NUS curriculum. Furthermore, while the Singapore/Australia/UK idea of honours are equivalent, I was told that US has an entirely different idea of what honours mean: some universities give undergraduates “honours” as an indication of good grades (and not an extra year of research-based studies).
Nonetheless, I think there is the possibility of such a thing happening, because, as you’ve pointed out, the opportunities are enormous.
Hey Jackson:
I am pretty sure US universities have Honors programme where students do Honors project as research.
This is an example from the Honors project site of Iowa State uni
http://www.hs.iastate.edu/honorspgm/project.php
“In order to graduate with Honors, each student has to complete an Honors Project and present it at the University Honors Poster Presentation held toward the end of each semester. This project allows you learn more about your chosen field of study, research or scholarship, and yourself. Completing an Honors project allows to you plan, execute, and complete a project that is, for the most part, self-directed.
You are responsible for choosing a project topic. The topic should further your educational goals and relate to your career plans. You might choose a specific topic area within your major or relative to your major that you wish to explore more indepth. If there is a faculty member with whom you would like to work, he/she may be willing to work with you on a topic of mutual interest. Finally, you currently may be involved in ongoing research in your field with a faculty member (or know of a faculty member conducting a larger research study). If this is true, there might be a part of the larger study that can become your Honors project. ”
And this is for Duke University in the US
http://sanford.duke.edu/undergraduate/honors/timeline.php
“Planning your Honors Project
Picking Your Advisor: Picking your faculty adviser for the honors project is especially important because you will be working with him or her intensively. Your faculty adviser generally helps you in defining and structuring the project and, together with the honors program director, provides feedback along the way. Those who can serve as advisors for papers in the honors seminar track or the independent study track are any regular-rank faculty who have an affiliation with the Sanford School of Public Policy (including those with secondary or joint appointments). The director of the honors seminar, in consultation with the PPS department chair and DUS, approves the assignment of advisors in both routes to graduation with distinction. A list of Sanford faculty by policy area can be found here.”
And for sciences, this is for Cornell.
http://biology.cornell.edu/research/honors.html
“The Honors Program in biological sciences is designed to offer advanced training in laboratory and field research through the performance of an original research project under the direct guidance of a member of the Cornell faculty. Applications for the Honors Program are available in the Office of Undergraduate Biology, 216 Stimson Hall, and must be submitted to the Honors Program Committee at the end of the student’s junior year. Application forms for the Honors Program are separate from the enrollment forms for BIOG 4990 (Undergraduate Research in Biology).”
I would like to add, Canadian universities have honors project as well
Hmm…
Maybe I’m told wrong. Or maybe some universities do offer honours, some don’t. (This info was told to me by a PhD student from US, and she strongly recommended us to put Honours project: … instead of just Honours in our resume.)
So perhaps this is not a problem at all…
Something you may have overlooked is that it is difficult to set up reciprocal agreements that are truly reciprocal. Between the UK and Australia, no problem. But between Singapore and the West, you have a situation where lots of Singaporeans would want to pay local rates to go to prestigious overseas institutions, but virtually no foreigners wanting to come to Singapore at their home country rates (and no foreigners come to Singapore for more than a semester). Just go to any local university and try to find an ang moh studying who is not on a one sem exchange. I think that reciprocity is a long ways off. I just think our universities are virtually unknown in the West and our country is unpopular there. Cheers!
Well, maybe Singaporeans studying in these overseas institutions may jump on the bandwagon.
That being said…the only westerners that may wanna come to Singapore are perhaps those who wanna travel around abit. Those who wanna come Sg usually book tours around Southeast Asia.
Yes, admittedly, some of the opinions from academics in top institutions on the Yale-nus tie up really showed the opinion of the likes of NUS and other local institutions.
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