Ministry of Education (MOE) is removing a current requirement for applicant’s O-Level results to comprise 20% of his University Admissions Score (UAS).
This means that Polytechnic graduates applying to the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) from 2020 will no longer have their O-Level grades be considered for admission, except for certain courses.
The UAS is a framework adopted by the six autonomous universities to benchmark and rank applicants’ academic abilities for admission to university.
Second Minister for Education Indranee Rajah, made the announcement on Nov 8, said the polytechnic GPA provides a “better and more current reflection” of the knowledge and skills students have gained during their polytechnic education.
“This, along with other initiatives such as discretionary admissions, is in line with the other changes we have made to our education system to allow students with different learning styles to be evaluated more holistically,” she said.
“It also better recognises late bloomers, and creates more opportunities for those who flourish after discovering their interest when they are older.”
Of the six autonomous universities, only NUS and NTU compute applicants’ UAS by putting an 80 per cent weightage on their polytechnic GPA and 20 per cent on their O-Level results.
The other four – the Singapore Management University, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore Institute of Technology and Singapore University of Social Sciences – do not “hardcode” O-Level results when evaluating polytechnic applicants, said MOE. This means that they consider factors such as polytechnic GPA, aptitude tests and interview performance in assessing an applicant, and take into account O-Level results only where relevant.
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