With this kind of newspaper reports coming out from the national
paper, you know where local grads stand versus foreign
students.
Polytechnic grads put squeeze on university places
Over half of this year's batch of 21,000 want to go on to
university; overwhelming demand for 'hot' courses
Straits Times, The (Singapore)
Prime News
March 15, 2008
Author: Sandra Davie, Senior Writer
STUDENTS eyeing a university place have a couple more weeks to
apply, but this already looks like another tough year to get
in.
The reason: the three universities are looking at a bumper crop of
applications from polytechnic graduates.
The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang
Technological University (NTU) held an early admissions exercise
for poly graduates and both saw a surge in numbers, partly because
1988's Dragon Year babies are graduating from the five polytechnics
.
The NUS received 8,444 applications, up from 6,600 last year, while
NTU had 2,000 more, setting a new record of 11,800 poly graduates
seeking admission.
As most would have applied to both universities, admission
officials estimate that more than half of this year's 21,000 poly
graduates want to continue to university.
Not yet factored in are junior college students who just received
their A-level results, as well as foreigners and repeat applicants
who failed to get in before and will try again.
The Government has said that with the 14,700 places it is providing
this year at the three universities, slightly more than 25 per cent
of the cohort should get places.
But there might still be a crunch for some courses. The
universities expect certain 'hot' courses to be oversubscribed many
times over, and this just means it will be harder to get in without
strong grades.
Last year's most sought-after courses included arts and social
sciences, mass communications, real estate and project facilities
management.
There was less demand from well-qualified applicants for courses
such as electrical and electronic engineering, computing and
science.
NUS vice-provost (Education) Tan Thiam Soon said early indications
are that some courses such as business and accountancy are again in
great demand this year.
Advising students to consider other courses, he said their career
options need not be limited. 'Many engineering and science
graduates are snapped up every year by the banking and the finance
sectors,' he said.
NTU's admissions dean Loh Nee Lam made a similar pitch, saying that
many corporate chiefs trained as engineers and engineers are in
great demand here and overseas.
The universities are expecting a slight drop in A-level applicants,
as this year's batch born in 1989 is about 1,800 fewer than the
Dragon cohort who applied last year.
Singapore sees more babies born every Dragon Year, which is
considered auspicious by the Chinese.
Last year, applications from A-level and poly students hit record
levels at the NUS, NTU and the Singapore Management University, and
it meant far more applicants than places available.
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Copyright, 2008, Singapore Press Holdings Limited
