From: CHEN WEN FA
E-mail: [email protected]
Date: 22 Nov 1999
Time: 05:57:19
Remote Name: 203.124.1.50
“Quality of degrees matters as number of universities increases.”
I refer to “ Are precious local talents being shut out from NUS and NTU?” (Straits Times, Nov 13). An overseas graduate myself, I wish to provide some personal perspectives regarding this issue. It is obvious that most former polytechnic students mentioned in the article have not graduated from prestigious or reputable overseas universities; hence the quality of their degrees is doubtful. Potential undergraduates and employers should be informed that huge disparity in quality and standard exist among universities. While many people already learned of this, many do not know how serious it has become. From personal experience, many undergraduates in reputable foreign universities who could not complete their course due to poor results then enrolled in other universities. Many later graduated with very good results (some even with honours) from newly established universities!
I shall focus on Britain, Australia and Singapore as the around 3500 universities in United States are already well known for their ridiculous disparity in standard. Many universities sprang up only in the 1980s and 1990s. In Britain, Australia and Singapore, the number of universities increases about 100 percent or more in the 1980s and 1990s.
The article cited four British universities that have accepted polytechnic graduates and have produced many Singaporean graduates with honours degrees. However, non of these universities are in the top 15 or even top 20 in the latest ‘The Times 1999 League Table” – a widely quoted ranking of UK’s universities. The university Mr. Tan Teck Chuan graduated from is ranked 35, even lower than all the above four universities. As for the only Australian university mentioned in the news report, it was established only in 1992 and is widely considered to be a below average to average university in Australia. Many of these universities have low and very flexible entry requirements. They could be widely heard of in Singapore, but only for their aggressive marketing efforts to gain overseas student because they could not attract better local and foreign (e.g. Singaporean) students.
Most new universities are acutely short of operational funds, caused by poor research performance and the fierce competition among many universities. They must therefore rely heavily on overseas students’ full-fees. Despite strong and constant denials from many official bodies, this have resulted in a declined in entry requirements and standards in these new universities. This also applies to older but less reputable universities that are unsuccessfully in attracting good students and staff.
Another relevant point is the quality of honours degree in British universities. Singaporeans should not attach a higher value to any honours degree simply because it is an honours degree, especially after reading that article. We should discern whether it is direct (3 years) or non-direct (4 years) honours and more importantly whether is it from a reputable and established university. By international norms, most international direct honours degrees are only for standard 4 or 5 year courses e.g. Engineering or Architecture. Similarly, standard 3 year (non-engineering) courses require an excellent student who shall qualify for honours first and complete another (honours) year before being conferred the non-direct honours degree. However, many British universities have direct honours degrees for almost all courses, including non-engineering courses. This alone has resulted in the oversupply of honours degrees.
A closely related issue is that of grade classification of the 3 year direct honours degrees in some British universities. In these universities, the average marks required for honours in many direct honours degree in only 40 and above while pass degree requirement is only 30 to 39. This classification of honours also enables a student to get a better class honours in these direct honours degrees when compared to many international non-direct honours degrees. It is much easier to get First Class honours as some British direct honours degree require only an average score of 70 (and above) in the third year; not 75 or 80 (and above) in the honours (fourth) year required by most international universities. 60 to 69 is the required average score for some British universities to achieve direct Second class honours (Upper); in an Australian or Singapore university, anything lower than 65 in honours (fourth) year would likely be a non-direct Third class honours - 2 tier below Second class honours (Upper). These are still not considering the fact the non-direct honours year is more competitive and tougher.
The British direct honours courses have allowed a ridiculously large number of graduates to graduate with honours when compare with other international courses. It has created an inverted pyramid situation – the number of honours graduates largely exceeding the number of basic degree graduates. I have read a newspaper advertisement from a low ranked UK university; which was produced to congratulate her recent Singaporean graduates. The university produced about 160 direct honours graduates but only 3 basic/general degree graduates.
Many Singaporean polytechnic students enrolled in universities with poor reputation (but often have a ‘good’ façade because of aggressive and misleading marketing) because these universities have low entry requirements and offer shorter than usual course period that inevitably lower their standards. Some UK and Australian universities with dubious reputation allow Singapore polytechnics diploma holders to complete their direct honours degrees (UK) or pass degrees (Australia) in only one year or one and a half year; not the usual two years for diploma holder. Prestigious universities like The University of Western Australia and University of Adelaide did not resort to such methods as this will inevitable hurt their good international reputation.
The 100 percent (or more) increase in the number of universities have not only occurred in foreign countries but also locally (with NTU and SMU). Singapore had increased and is increasing the number of local graduates, as it is believed to be beneficial to the economy. Employers should realise that the increase in number of graduates does not mean an increase in quality graduates. Therefore employers must be more discerning in employing graduates; be wary of direct-honours degrees and graduates from universities with dubious reputation. Where possible employ graduates from prestigious universities, e.g. the top 20 universities in UK, the ‘Group of Eight’ elite universities in Australia or top 50 universities in USA. As a guide, no prestigious university with a good reputation resort to advertising their basic degree courses in newspapers.
From: CHEN Wenfa
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