New RP chairman Richard Seow wants to improve poly's
branding
SINGAPORE: He would like to build up the brand of
Singapore's youngest polytechnic, and hopefully improve its image
and popularity among prospective students – many of whom may still
not understand what Republic Polytechnic (RP) has to
offer.
Even as its previous board has done a "tremendous job" in
establishing RP, Mr Richard Seow, who took over as chairman of RP's
board of governors in July, feels the public does not know what the
"relatively new" institution, opened in 2002, stands for.
The school is not "unpopular", stressed Mr Seow, who is also the
chairman of Parkway Holdings. Rather, it is a matter of publicising
its unique brand of polytechnic education. "I thought I understood
problem-based learning (PBL), but at my first PBL class at RP, I
was really surprised by how it works," said Mr Seow.
Under this approach, students solve one problem a day and present
solutions to their peers at the end of the school day – much as one
would in a real work environment, he said.
And while the polytechnic has learnt that not every class can be
taught with the PBL approach, such as more skills-oriented courses,
it is also working to improve any shortcomings through symposiums
on PBL where practices and research are shared.
"It's still one of our fundamentals," said Mr Seow, who spoke to
the media at the opening of RP's new Experiential Learning
[email protected] The S$20,000 centre located on Pulau Ubin will allow
students to learn how to solve problems in an outdoor
environment.
Over there, students can build hard skills, as well as soft skills
such as learning to communicate well to perform tasks
effectively.
It will also support RP's Outdoor and Adventure Learning modules,
and could be used for other course work in future. For example, as
flooding is one occasional hazard at the quarry, School of Applied
Sciences students could look at ways of addressing this problem,
said Mr Ang Keng Loo, senior director for student services at
RP.
- TODAY/so