AMID the camera flashes and smiles all round at the SIM University's campus yesterday, as 450 graduates received their scrolls at its second graduation ceremony, was a nagging question.

Isn't UniSIM - as it is affectionately called - already the 'fourth' university, students and even some staff asked.

What sparked it off was Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's announcement about a possible fourth university, at his National Day Rally speech on Aug 19.

He had said the Government, recognising the rising aspirations of young people, was setting up a committee to study the need for another university.

He spoke about the setting up of a fourth 'publicly funded' university.

This touched a raw nerve with some UniSIM students.

About a dozen students wrote to the university management. They argued that the next university should be termed Singapore's fifth university, not fourth.

In its response, the university pointed out that PM Lee was referring to the fourth publicly funded university and reassured them that their degrees are recognised.

But some questioning still surfaced yesterday.

One pioneer graduate, Mr Clarence Wong, 44, said it did not help that there was not much fanfare when UniSIM opened, unlike in the case of the Singapore Management University (SMU).

'There was just the one announcement by the Education Minister,' the part-time business degree graduate pointed out.

Similarly vexed was Ms Jane Lim, 28, a business development executive who is studying business at UniSIM.

She said: 'UniSIM has been referred to and written about in the media as the fourth university.

'And now the Government calls the new university it is going to set up the fourth one. It has left all of us a little unsure about what exactly our status is.'

The students' underlying worry is that their alma mater has yet to be accepted as an institution on par with the other three universities: the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the SMU.

These are, unlike UniSIM, publicly funded.

UniSIM, which had been running the British Open University degree programmes for 10 years, received a charter from the Education Ministry to grant its own degrees in April 2005.

It opened its doors in January last year at the Clementi Road campus, shared with the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM), its parent body.

UniSIM offered some 30 degree programmes to 6,000 students. The bulk of the students, about 4,500 of them, transferred from the Open University programme to UniSIM's programmes.

As of now, the university has a total of 7,400 students enrolled in some 42 programmes, ranging from counselling degrees to a Bachelor of Arts in translation and culinary arts and management.

These rising numbers and new course offerings indicate a quick acceptance from students.

UniSIM president Cheong Hee Kiat said most of the students are working adults in their 20s and 30s. The university is clearly fulfilling a need.

But some students and officials say they have colleagues and family members asking now if UniSIM is indeed a university.

Professor Cham Tao Soon, who is chancellor of UniSIM and the former president of NTU, says part of the problem is its private status.

Its parent body, SIM, used $70 million from its reserves to start up the university.

Prof Cham noted that there is now no other privately funded and run local university here.

'Some people have this notion that it can be a university only if it is funded and run by the Government.

'Yet you know the Government sets high standards. It wouldn't grant SIM University degree-awarding status if it wasn't confident of the standards,' he said.

Mr Wong agreed, adding that UniSIM provided an avenue for working adults like him, who had missed out on an earlier chance to get a degree.

A polytechnic graduate, he had to help support his family before seeking a degree.

He had transferred from the Open University programme to pursue UniSIM's business degree through part-time study. He has since been promoted to a higher-level job.

Still, he agreed that the proof of the pudding has to be in the eating - UniSIM must prove the worth of its degrees through employment surveys.

Professor Cheong said the university intends to do just that, from next year.

Is this article useful to you?