SINGAPORE'S fourth university will take in up to 2,500 students a year and offer three main disciplines: engineering, design and business.

To churn out a breed of innovative graduates, it will adopt a more fluid system of learning, where, instead of sticking closely to a chosen discipline, students will pick up knowledge and skills across fields.

Engineering undergraduates, for instance, will be taught design, so they can come up with products with user-friendly features.

The shape of the fourth university has been hinted at several times since it was mooted last August, but yesterday marked the first time some details were locked down.

They were announced by Senior Minister of State for Education Lui Tuck Yew as part of a report which recommended four ways of expanding the number of places in Singapore's universities.

The preliminary report was drawn up by a 12-member committee he headed.

The aim is to give university places to 30 per cent of each year's cohort by 2015, up from 25 per cent now. This translates into an extra 2,400 places, to be equally divided among polytechnic graduates and junior-college students.

Besides defining the fourth university, the report also recommends:

• Considering the setting up of a small liberal arts college by the National University of Singapore (NUS);

• Getting the three universities - NUS, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU) - to introduce new programmes and thus increase enrolment;

• Expanding the polytechnics' niche degree programmes in, for example, early childhood learning and naval architecture, which are offered as part of their tie-ups with foreign institutions.

Rear-Admiral (NS) Lui, referring to the fourth university's inter-disciplinary approach, said: 'While we recognise the need for students to have deep knowledge, going forward, the needs of the economy and the desires of employers really centre around students who are able to take in knowledge from across a variety of fields.

'Students who have some education in these three disciplines will be positioned well for the needs of the economy and help the university chart a different approach from that taken by the others.'

He added that the university - to be housed in northern, eastern or north-eastern Singapore - will also focus its research on meeting the needs of the economy and helping companies solve problems.

Undergraduates will be put through extended hands-on learning through long-term internships with companies.

Turning to the niche degree programmes offered by the polys, RADM Lui said the recommendation was to raise the target enrolment: Now at 460 students a year by 2010, it will be upped to 700 students a year by 2015.

Meanwhile, NUS and NTU will launch new engineering programmes, and SMU will offer more specialisations and bump up its intake by 500 to 2,100 a year in 2015.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last year that the number of university places had to be raised to meet the growing demand for tertiary education.

The recommendations will be deliberated on by the International Academic Advisory Panel, made up of 12 distinguished academics and industry heads from across the world, when they meet here from today to Friday. They will give their inputs on Friday.

janeng@sph.com.sg

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