Ensure local university places go to best students from various polytechnics

The university admission season is in full swing.

It is timely to reflect on whether admission processes can be improved to manage the increased diversity of prospective university students.

I am a recent graduate from the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Master of Architecture programme from the polytechnic route.

But I initially faced significant challenges securing a place in local universities, though I came third in my interior architecture diploma from Temasek Polytechnic, one of two diplomas recognised by the Board of Architects Singapore for training waivers.

NUS and the Singapore University of Technology and Design rejected my application and appeals for admission to their bachelor’s degrees in architecture.

My grade point average (GPA) as the third-highest-scoring student was not enough to even land me an interview under a discretionary admissions scheme.

An appeal letter from a Member of Parliament was the saving grace that secured me an interview. I was offered a place in the NUS bachelor’s degree in architecture in 2015 and completed it in 2018. I finished the master’s course last year.

It was disquieting to observe, for instance, that students from Singapore Polytechnic’s environment-design-related diplomas disproportionately dominated the pool of polytechnic students in the bachelor’s and master’s courses in architecture at NUS.

My checks in 2015 revealed that the GPA of the bottom 10th percentile of polytechnic students admitted to the architecture programme was higher than that of the top scorer from my Temasek Polytechnic diploma cohort. This raises the question of whether it is equitable to use the polytechnic GPA as a standard for admission to courses in local universities.   

While the A-Level examinations provide a level playing field for junior college students, can we assume that the GPAs between polytechnics are a similar and fair equivalent for our polytechnic students?

Do not get me wrong. This is not a public appeal to increase places for polytechnic students. It is about ensuring that these limited seats go to the best students from the various polytechnics.

Can the Ministry of Education clarify if there are measures to ensure similar levels of rigour in the curricula of diploma courses from the different polytechnics?

And is there a similar standard for assessment and grading?

The current practice in some diploma courses to invite university academics to review the work of their final-year students is commendable and should be better structured to serve as an objective means of assessing the competence of students.  

An additional GPA score, perhaps moderated at a national level and reflective of the student’s position in his course, can help universities more fairly process these applications.

Polytechnics should also publish the proportion of their diploma graduates who enter local universities, so that prospective students can make informed choices. Students who are certain that they want to pursue further education after their diplomas can thus better gauge which course will offer them the best chances.

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