Ngee Ann Poly students can go on 'fast track' for bachelor's degree

NUS and SMU latest local universities to tie up with poly under programme

- Elisha Tushara

Students joining Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) in the new academic year in 2025 will have more room to customise their learning through more majors and specialisations.

The polytechnic is also allowing its students to read modules from some universities during their final semester, potentially shaving off one year from their degree programmes due to module exemptions.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore Management University (SMU) are the latest additions to the list of local universities that NP has tied up with for this "fast track" scheme, called the University Pathway Programme.

About 50 students will benefit from this programme on a yearly basis.

So far, in the past two years, 10 students from the polytechnic have taken up modules from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).

They also have opportunities to work on projects with university professors and researchers.

This comes as 63 per cent of NP's graduates made it to the six local universities in 2024, up from 48 per cent in 2021, said Mr Mah Wee Beng, NP's deputy principal and registrar, during a media briefing on Jan 8.

For example, third-year information technology students can read science and humanities modules at SUTD during their last semester at NP.

Students enrolled in eight NP courses such as design, biomedical engineering and immersive media will also get to read modules from SMU from 2025, and NUS from 2026.