SINGAPORE — With the latest survey figures indicating a soft employment market for fresh graduates, the National University of Singapore (NUS) is introducing a slew of programmes in 2018 as it strives to develop “multiple pathways” to help its students stay ahead of the curve.
Three new undergraduate programmes, including a first in veterinary medicine in Singapore, and more double major courses will be offered in the upcoming academic year, said NUS senior deputy president and provost Ho Teck Hua in a media briefing on Monday (Feb 26).
The latest joint graduate employment survey released by three local universities on Monday found that among those who are in the labour force, 78.4 per cent of fresh graduates secured full-time permanent employment last year, down from 79.9 per cent in 2016. The figure was the lowest since the survey was first carried out for the 2012 cohort.
In order to give its students more job options when they graduate, NUS will increase its double major and major-minor combinations by almost 100 per cent. The university will introduce 86 new combinations in the academic year in August, which will take the total to 180.
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Professor Ho said the “carefully curated” combinations will make NUS graduates more versatile. For instance, a student who takes up the new economics and psychology double major could work for a consulting firm involved in consumer insights and economics. At present, about 15 per cent of each cohort of NUS graduates are trained in more than one discipline. The aim is to increase that to at least 50 per cent of each cohort, said Prof Ho.
The university currently offers 71 double degrees, 33 joint degrees, 24 concurrent degrees and 94 double major and major-minor combinations.
Prof Ho said: “We hear a lot about employment options for students. The dream is that when they finish, they have multiple job offers from the different domains, and they have a chance to choose. The possibilities are endless.”
However, Prof Ho also noted that many NUS graduates are also starting their own companies, and that this was not reflected in the surveys. The latest findings showed that the proportion of those doing freelance work jumped from 1.7 per cent in 2016 to 2.4 per cent last year.
In a first for Singapore, the NUS will offer undergraduates a chance to study veterinary medicine through its new concurrent degree programme with the University of Melbourne. At present, only Ngee Ann and Temasek Polytechnics offer diploma courses respectively in veterinary bioscience and veterinary technology. The programme, which will take between 5.5 to 6.5 years to complete, will take in 10 students for a start, with the number to increase if demand is high.
They will spend 1.5 years at NUS to grow their foundation, followed by one-year abroad at the University of Melbourne to read modules in Year 1 of the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM). After that, the students will spend another three years in Melbourne to complete their studies. While they will pay prevailing NUS and University of Melbourne tuition fees during their time in Singapore and Australia, Singaporean students can expect to pay about 15 per cent less in tuition fees for the DVM portion of the programme as compared to the four-year course in Melbourne as an international student. They will graduate with an NUS bachelor’s degree in life sciences and a graduate-entry, professional veterinary science qualification from the University of Melbourne.
The other two new degree programmes are in pharmaceutical sciences, and a joint degree programme combining the NUS bachelor’s degree in life sciences with the University of Dundee’s bachelor’s degree in biological or biomedical sciences.
To allow students to pursue their passions and degree of choice, NUS will give bonus points to students applying for their first choice programmes, but only for those that do not require interviews. Currently, about 12 per cent of the university’s 7,000 freshmen are assessed on their aptitude for courses such as law through interviews, portfolios and entrance tests.
The bonus points, which can go up to 1.25 points, the equivalent of one H1 grade, will be added to the student’s University Admission Score when the university reviews his or her application.
This is aimed at encouraging students who are afraid they did not perform well enough to enter their first choice courses to apply for them, rather than going for their second choice, said Prof Ho. “You have to be competitive, but as long as you’re competitive enough at the margin, we’ll give you some preferences for indicating your first choice,” he added.
In addition, the university will offer new internship opportunities in South-east Asia and Toronto under the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme.
The NOC, started in 2002, seeks to immerse NUS students in the intense start-up environment of top start-up regions. Beginning this year, students can take up internships at companies or start-ups in Indonesia, or in Toronto, Canada.
The university is also offering 200 more bond-free scholarships to undergraduates, bringing the total number to 430 per year.
Students will be able to find out more about the new initiatives at the NUS Open Day on Mar 10 at the NUS University Town.