By Jane Ng

The fourth publicly-funded university will take in as many as 2,500 students a year and offer three main disciplines: engineering, design and business.

It will take an interdisciplinary approach to teaching, for instance, combining engineering and design or engineering and business so that graduates will go beyond having core knowledge in just one discipline.

At the university which may be located in the north, east or northeastern part of Singapore, undergraduates will also do research aimed at solving problems faced by the industry and have the chance to do extended internships.

The setting up of the new university is one of the ways to increase the number of varsity places so that 30 per cent of every cohort will get to attend university here by 2015, up from the 25 per cent now. This will open up 2,400 more places.

It also also provide openings for 40 per cent of polytechnic graduates and 15 per cent of junior college students to publicly funded universities.

The 2,400 places will be equally distributed among polytechnic and junior college students, said Senior Minister of State for Education Lui Tuck Yew who chairs the committee looking into the expansion of the university sector.

He released its preliminary report with a four-pronged approach on Tuesday.

Apart from the setting up of the new university, the National University of Singapore (NUS) will set up a small liberal arts college.

The three local universities will also enhance their programmes, and the niche degree programmes offered by polytechnics in tie ups with foreign specialised institutions will see an increase in enrolment.

The Singapore Management University plans to expand its annual undergraduate intake from its current 1,600 to 2,100 by 2015 through the broadening of its disciplines, while the NUS and the Nanyang Technological University(NTU) will also introduce a new engineering programme each.