http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_379178.html
Degrees for poly grads
A new institute will manage foreign tie-ups to offer courses locally
By Sandra Davie, Senior Writer
Polytechnic graduates who cannot get into the three universities here usually go abroad to pursue a degree - at great expense - or join the job market. -- ST PHOTO: ALBERT SIM
POLYTECHNIC graduates who cannot get into the three universities here usually go abroad to pursue a degree - at great expense - or join the job market.
But from 2011, more of them will be able to obtain degrees here, through tie-ups with reputable foreign universities, as well as by enrolling in Singapore's fourth university.
Leading the charge will be a new Singapore Institute of Applied Technology, set up to plan, manage and implement these joint degree programmes.
Six such programmes here have been running since 2007, with 300 poly graduates pursuing two-year degrees in disciplines ranging from optometry to naval architecture.
The Education Ministry wants this expanded so that by 2015, some 2,000 students yearly will enrol as full-time students and another 1,500 will take up the courses on a part-time basis.
With this, the proportion of poly graduates who will move up the education ladder will rise from the current 15 per cent to 20 per cent of the cohort.
Taking into account those who enrol in university via the A-level route, it means 30 per cent of a Primary One cohort will emerge from the education system with a degree.
The new plans were referred to in President SR Nathan's opening address to Parliament on Monday. Yesterday, Education Minister Ng Eng Hen put the meat on the proposals.
He made it clear that the foreign universities will not be run-of-the-mill schools.
For a start, he announced that the new university, which will start taking in students in 2011, has partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from the United States. MIT is consistently ranked as one of the top 10 universities in the world and No. 1 for engineering.
Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.
Degrees for poly grads
A new institute will manage foreign tie-ups to offer courses locally
By Sandra Davie, Senior Writer
Polytechnic graduates who cannot get into the three universities here usually go abroad to pursue a degree - at great expense - or join the job market. -- ST PHOTO: ALBERT SIM
POLYTECHNIC graduates who cannot get into the three universities here usually go abroad to pursue a degree - at great expense - or join the job market.
But from 2011, more of them will be able to obtain degrees here, through tie-ups with reputable foreign universities, as well as by enrolling in Singapore's fourth university.
Leading the charge will be a new Singapore Institute of Applied Technology, set up to plan, manage and implement these joint degree programmes.
Six such programmes here have been running since 2007, with 300 poly graduates pursuing two-year degrees in disciplines ranging from optometry to naval architecture.
The Education Ministry wants this expanded so that by 2015, some 2,000 students yearly will enrol as full-time students and another 1,500 will take up the courses on a part-time basis.
With this, the proportion of poly graduates who will move up the education ladder will rise from the current 15 per cent to 20 per cent of the cohort.
Taking into account those who enrol in university via the A-level route, it means 30 per cent of a Primary One cohort will emerge from the education system with a degree.
The new plans were referred to in President SR Nathan's opening address to Parliament on Monday. Yesterday, Education Minister Ng Eng Hen put the meat on the proposals.
He made it clear that the foreign universities will not be run-of-the-mill schools.
For a start, he announced that the new university, which will start taking in students in 2011, has partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from the United States. MIT is consistently ranked as one of the top 10 universities in the world and No. 1 for engineering.
Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.
