More ways to get part-time degrees at NTU

SINGAPORE - Engineers who are looking to take on a part-time degree but want a faster completion time can now do so at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

The local university is undergoing a revamp for its current part-time engineering degree programmes in order to cater to more working professionals who are interested in attaining an engineering degree.

From August this year, part-time students in the revamped degree programmes in Electrical & Electronic Engineering and Mechanical Engineering can look forward to graduating within four year instead of the usual five years. In the same month, a new part-time degree programme in Computer Science will also be offered at the school to cater to the rising demand for computer scientists.

These part-time degree programmes will be offered over the course of three semesters instead of the current two semesters. Students will be able to decide the number of courses taken per semester to suit their own needs.

Additionally, there will also be courses offered during the inter-semester breaks to maximise teaching time.

Besides these new part-time degrees in engineering, the university will be introducing two new standalone part-time Specialist Modular Certificate programmes. These short-term programmes consists of four to five courses made for working professionals to update themselves on specific topics such as energy, oil and gas as well as offshore engineering.

NTU will also begin to adopt the 'flipped classroom' pedagogy whereby majority of lectures and course materials will be made available online and packaged into bite-sized segments for learning before class. This is to make way for a more effective and personalised learning environment where tutorial discussions with professors are enhanced through guidance and coaching as opposed to plain lectures.

This is useful for all students owing to the fact that part-time students will be sitting for the same examinations as full-time students.

NTU Senior Associate Provost (Undergraduate Education), Professor Kam Chan Hin said: "Leveraging innovative learning approaches such as the flipped classroom has allowed us to streamline and enhance our part-time degree programmes. This approach encourages deeper learning and more substantive discussions to take place during face-to-face sessions."

A new office has also been set up to oversee NTU's part-time engineering degree programmes, the new Computer Science programme and the two Specialist Modular Certificate programmes.

Similar to the undergraduate engineering programmes, part-time students are also able to choose from a number of specialisations based on their interests and aptitude.

Applications are now open till Jan 31, 2015.

ssandrea@sph.com.sg