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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Value of a Degree

I am writing to comment on today's value in getting a Bachelor's, Honour and Master degrees.

More than 6 years ago, the conventional way of getting a Bachelor's or Honour degree is from a local university, either National University of Singapore (NUS) or Nanyang Technological University (NTU), or from an overseas university. Getting into a local university was quite an achievement those days especially for those from polytechnics because only the top 5% of entire cohort are allowed into local universities. Getting into and graduated from local universities were proud for many.

The current situation is a lot different. Instead of having 2 local universities, we are now seeing 3. Instead of top 5% of poly cohort able to get into local universities, this number is now higher. For those not able to get into local universities or those prefer to choose another route, Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) option is now available. I heard of someone having got a Bachelor's degree part-time in just one year. To get a Master degree, you can now do it with Informatics in just 1 year with no exams.

It looks to me those opting for local universities are at a disadvantage in terms of age and working experience. A male with a diploma is now able to get a Bachelor's degree plus 1 year of working experience at 23 years of age.

You can take my comment as being subjective.

3 comments:

  1. There will be more university graduates in the future, but there is a catch and this will happen in the next 10 years:

    i) Fresh Engineering Graduates will be employed as Engineering Assistant/Assistant Engineers first for the first 3 years before assessing to be full Engineer position.

    ii) Fresh University Graduates, unless those are from scholarship to the Ivy Leagues, will be doing what the fresh Polytechnic graduates are doing 5 ~ 10 years ago.

    iii) Those who are already in the workforce but did not upgrade their education certification within 10 years of their last graduation will be demoted or will be osculated to those who are fresh graduates more qualified than them by 1 level, cheaper, hardworking, maybe can work 24/7 and likely to be from those from countries such as ASEAN, China and India. Hence their certification is only valid for 10 years.


    The only way to escape from the rat race: Start your own business, even you are just a hawker from the hawker centre.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is sad right?

    Another option is to upgrade onself by going for Master.

    hongjun

    ReplyDelete
  3. Forgot to add, some programmes allow students to sit for exam without having to attend lectures.

    hongjun

    ReplyDelete

Do provide your constructive comment. I appreciate that.

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