Entry to Local Unis

The debate on whether poly grads ought to be given equal opportunity for entry to local universities has been going on for weeks!

I love reading stuff from people who write to the forum, coz sometimes they make hilarious arguments. E.g. People go to poly because they didn't qualify for junior college, and so they should not deserve a chance to study in the local unis. O_o

It's not just Poly Cert vs 'A' Levels Cert

Before we get all myopic and start poking at the eyes of our own kind, take a good look at what kind of students the local unis have been taking in. Apart from taking in our great 'A' levels holders for undergraduate courses, the local unis have been taking in foreigners from all sorts of education system around the world. Before we diss the quality of our own polytechnic grads, we should make sure that those foreign students are holding pre-U qualifications which equal, if not better, our 'A' level certs and poly diplomas.

Lack of Standardised Test

To put it simply, this current debate has been going on and on soley because the local unis generally do not use a standarised admissions test to assess the ability of the applicants to the undergraduate programmes.

In the US, students take high school exams (GED), then take the SATs to gain entry to local unis. They recognise the variance in standard of applicants who may have been educated via a variety of avenues, e.g. public schools, private schools, distance-learning, home-schooled, not from the US etc.

Afghan College Entrance Exam Day
More than 1,800 prospective cadets rise for the playing of the Afghan National Anthem before the start of the Afghan College Entrance Exam for the Afghan National Army Academy, Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 25. The prospective cadets here are hoping to be one of the approximately 300 chosen for the new freshman class. The exam makes up 80 percent of their final admissions score. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson)

Customised Standardised Test

Heh heh... sounds oxymoronic...

Having said that, I have to add that some faculties/departments, Medicine, Dentistry, Law, Architecture etc., do create their own set of entry hurdles, e.g. entrance exams, interviews, personal statements etc.

E.g. During my time, the Department of Architecture in NUS shortlists a few hundred applicants ('A' level holders, polygrads, foreigners etc) and get them to sit through a test (which consists of all sorts of questions, i.e. quantitative and qualitative), then shortlist again, and get the remaining to go for an interview with their portfolios, then finalise the list of candidates.

Why does Department of Architecture go through this trouble? Because it's very difficult to assess whether one has an aptitude for Architecture just by looking at the 'A' levels cert. Is someone with 3As and 1B in Double Maths, Physics & Economics suitable for the Architecture course? It's difficult to tell. Wouldn't it make more sense to just accept the better Architecture polygrads? If then, people would be writing the papers to complain about Department of Architecture favouring polygrads. Unfair advantage for polygrads!

Hence, the useful entrance exam + interview + portfolio presentation.

Question is: How many departments/faculties can and/or bother to do something so labour-intensive? Imagine those super large faculties producing thousands of graduates each year... They already need a factory-line method to sort out the existing thousands of applications.

Imagine if every department/faculty in the local unis start coming up with their own entrance exams, tests, interviews etc... And you have 5 options to fill... Do you have to go for all 5 entrance assessments?! *fainted*