Page 96 - FSTE A5 Handbook

Appendix 1
A Brief Survey of Overseas Transfer
Practices of General Education Courses

(4) Thinking and Expression
Learning outcomes: An inculcation of critical thinking and effective communication skills.
(5) Singaporean Studies
Learning outcomes: Development of a societal and regional/global awareness, civic mindedness
and citizenship, cultural/intercultural understanding and collaboration, with Singapore as a
point of departure.

On the other hand, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has a more flexible policy in
handling credit transfer, which is managed by Office of Academic Services. NTU Students are
allowed to transfer the number of credits earned from the university they took courses from
to fulfil the graduation requirements for their degree programme in NTU. The application for
credit transfer is usually submitted in the first semester of their enrolment in NTU. Unlike NUS,
NTU students who were formerly polytechnic diploma holders are granted exemptions of up
to 12 credits maximally (Quick note: there is no less than 30% of the total credits reserved
for GE education in NTU). While there is no existing mechanism for block transfer, course-
based exemption is practised in NTU, where a credit is recognized as an Academic Unit (AU).
To facilitate credit transfer across institutions, NTU calculates an AU for a typical one-semester
course as follows:
• One hour of lecture/tutorial per week: 1 AU
• 3 hours laboratory/fieldwork per week: 1 AU

Furthermore, it is stated that exemptions are only given only for non-communication courses
in two categories, General Elective Requirement — Prescribed Electives (maximum of 6 credits)
and unrestricted Electives (maximum of 6 credits). To understand the requirement further,
they are listed as follows:

(1) GE core (12 AU) comprising:
• Communication Skills (6 AU)
• Singapore Studies (3 AU)
• Sustainability (1 AU)
• Ethics (1 AU)
• Enterprise and Innovation (1 AU)
(2) 3 GE prescribed electives area (15 AU)
5 courses (15 AU) with at least one course in each category:
• Business & Management
• Liberal Arts
• Science & Technology

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