The National University of Singapore (NUS) on Tuesday (Dec 8) officially launched a new college that will bring together two of its oldest faculties – arts and social sciences, and science – and take in more than 2,000 undergraduates.
The College of Humanities and Sciences, which will admit its first cohort of students in August 2021, marks a major shift from the traditional way of learning in separate disciplines….
Students will still graduate with a bachelor’s honours degree in arts, social sciences or science within four years. But a key difference is that they will have to take 13 common modules in areas that cut across different fields of study, such as design thinking, artificial intelligence and scientific inquiry.
Students will spend a third of their overall curriculum on such modules, which will focus on the intellectual approaches and connections across disciplines. Other topics include Asian studies, computational thinking and community and engagement.
Students will also take two higher-level interdisciplinary modules of their choice. These aim to integrate knowledge across disciplines….
Explaining the rationale for bringing both faculties together, Prof Tan [NUS president Tan Eng Chye] said that universities have to recognise that the workplace is changing.
“Jobs have been destabilised in an uncertain, complex and volatile environment, and the work we do is becoming increasingly integrated. More than ever, the speed and intensity of technological processes are increasing and reinforced by Covid-19,” he said.
“So the graduates of the future must be well prepared to navigate this new terrain and solve complex problems from multiple fronts. They need to not just work alongside one another, but with each other.”
To allow students more flexibility across disciplines, the College of Humanities and Sciences will also offer three new cross-disciplinary degree programmes from next year, in data science and economics; environmental studies; and philosophy, politics and economics.
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