School leavers eyeing a place in university
this year appeared to lose some interest in law, but were eager to
study anything related to computers.
Figures provided by the National University of
Singapore (NUS) and Singapore Management University (SMU) show a
drop in the number of students listing law as their first-choice
course.
Law is one of the most popular courses at NUS, just
after medicine and dentistry.
But this year, 17 per cent fewer applicants listed law
as their first choice compared with last year. SMU saw a similar
drop, of 22 per cent this year, compared with last year.
Still, both universities are maintaining their intake -
NUS at 250 students and SMU at 180 - and applicants still need top
grades to get into law.
NUS law dean Simon Chesterman said: "Even with the drop
in application numbers, four students put law as their first choice
for each place we have available... It certainly hasn't made it any
easier for students to get a place at NUS Law."
NUS vice-provost (undergraduate education) Bernard Tan
said warnings on the glut of law graduates, driven by overseas
graduates, probably influenced students.
"When the Law Minister says there is an oversupply of
law graduates, people take notice," he said.
Three years back, Law Minister K. Shanmugam had warned
that while the number of law graduates is expected to grow by
nearly a third by this year, the training contracts and jobs at law
firms might not grow at the same rate.
Law graduates have to undergo six months' training
before being admitted to the Singapore Bar. Most of these contracts
go to local law graduates, leaving their foreign-educated peers to
compete for the rest.
But if the interest in law is waning, interest in
computing is heating up.
Dr Tan said there was a 35 per cent increase in the
number of students listing computer science courses in NUS as their
first choice.
The NUS School of Computing is offering 520 places this
year, up from 370 places last year.
Higher demand has pushed up cut-off scores for the
course. Previously A-level students could enter it with three Bs.
Now they need at least two As.
SMU, which offers several specialist tracks in the
field, including business analytics and cyber security, said the
number of applicants who selected information systems as their
first choice increased by 12 per cent from the previous year.
The university is offering 300 places this year in the
course, 30 more than last year.
TNP