[ad_1]
SINGAPORE – The National University of Singapore (NUS) officially opened a new university on Tuesday (December 8) that will house two of its oldest faculties: arts and social sciences and sciences, and will host some 2,000 university students.
The Faculty of Humanities and Sciences, which will admit its first cohort of students in August 2021, marks a major change from the traditional way of learning in separate disciplines.
Both faculties date from 1929 and will continue to function separately.
Students will still graduate with an honors degree in arts, social studies, or science within four years. But a key difference is that they will have to take 13 common modules in areas that span different fields of study, such as design thinking, artificial intelligence, and scientific research.
Students will dedicate a third of their general curriculum to these modules, which will focus on intellectual approaches and connections between disciplines. Other topics include Asian studies, computational thinking, and community and engagement.
Students will also take two upper-level interdisciplinary modules of their choice. These aim to integrate knowledge across disciplines.
With this change, the modules that make up a student’s core requirement will form one-third of the overall curriculum. This is lower than the current 50 percent or more of the existing academic load.
With the new system, a double degree can also be completed in four years. Those who take two careers of two different types of degrees will obtain double degrees.
Currently, students often have to extend their studies by a semester or a year to complete this double degree.
In a briefing on Tuesday, NUS President Tan Eng Chye said the new curriculum structure will give students more flexibility to create their own program, as the workload for requirements will also be reduced. secondary and secondary.
Students may pursue any major, as well as a second major from either college, or take a combination major and minor. More than 1,000 modules per year will be available for you to choose from.
Professor Tan pointed out that, although there is interest from students in pursuing second degrees or lower, only 15% of those from both faculties currently do so.
With more room to choose what they want to follow, the hope is that this will increase from 40 to 50 percent of students, he said.
Explaining the rationale for bringing the two faculties together, Professor Tan said that universities must recognize that the workplace is changing.
“Jobs have been destabilized in an uncertain, complex and volatile environment, and the work we do is becoming increasingly integrated. More than ever, the speed and intensity of technology processes are increasing and reinforced by Covid-19,” said.
“Therefore, the graduates of the future must be well prepared to navigate this new terrain and solve complex problems on multiple fronts. They need to not only work together, but with each other.”
To allow students greater flexibility across disciplines, the College of Humanities and Sciences will also offer three new interdisciplinary degree programs starting next year, in data science and economics; Environmental studies; and philosophy, politics and economics.
Citing examples such as the University Scholars Program and Yale-NUS College, Professor Tan said: “In education, NUS has experimented with various initiatives over the past 20 years and along the way we have learned and improved them.”
Now, with the new university, interdisciplinary learning will take place on a larger scale, he added.
The university is the first in a series of NUS startups to offer even more interdisciplinary experiences for students, he said.
Beyond the arts and social sciences, and science students, those in other colleges and schools will be able to “reap the benefits of interdisciplinary studies in the future.” He added that more details will be shared at a later date.
[ad_2]
