In three years' time, the Open University Degree Programme hopes to have 7,000 students pursuing qualifications in such areas as environmental science, design and innovation, as well as enterprise resource planning, and courses which combine subjects like psychology and business, and mathematics and management. It currently has about 5,000 students studying for about 18 degree courses, including mathematics, business, English, technology and computer science. The Open University, which began in 1994, is run by Singapore Institute of Management for working adults trying to get a basic degree through part-time study. (Straits Times 4 Dec 2001)(4)

  A new online university, called U21global, to be based in Singapore, will start offering courses from early 2003. It is a joint venture between Thomson Learning, an American-based company which runs courses for students across all ages and corporations, and Universitas 21, an international network of 18 research-intensive universities set up to exploit the higher-education market. (Straits Times 19 Nov 2001)(H10)

  At the National Day Rally last night, Prime Minister GOH Chok Tong said the Government wants to up the proportion of Primary 1 students who go on to local university, from one in five to one in four, by 2010. This means raising the annual university intake by 4,000. With this goal in mind, Mr GOH said that, in principle, he supported the idea of setting up a fourth university, provided its graduates could meet the standards demanded by the economy. (Straits Times 20 Aug 2001)(H4)

  University-bound students worried that poor scores for project work in junior college may hurt their chances of entering a university here, have got a year's reprieve. The Education Ministry said that project work would now become an admission criteria only in 2005. The extension, it said, would give teachers and students more time to get used to project work. Students entering junior college in 2003 and those who join centralised institutes in 2002 will be the first to come under the project-work scheme. Junior colleges and centralised institutes began to assess students on project work last year. (Straits Times 21 Jun 2001)

  NTUC Income Scholarships now inviting applications. Closing date: 16 Jun 2001

  From 1 Jun 2001, CPF members need not have a minimum sum (now S$65,000) before they will be allowed to use their CPF savings for tuition fees at tertiary institutions. They will be allowed to use up to 40% of their accumulated savings in the Ordinary Account, excluding amounts withdrawn for housing. The scheme, introduced in 1989, allows CPF money to be used to pay tuition fees for full-time courses at the three universities, four polytechnics, LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. The money is taken as a loan and, one year after graduating, the recipient must start repayments to his parent's CPF account. About 8,000 tertiary students take advantage of the scheme each year. (Straits Times 15 May 2001)

  Singapore's universities will go ahead and use the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) to admit students in two years' time as planned, DPM Tony TAN said on 13 Apr 2001. This is despite the comments by University of California (UC) president Richard Atkinson in February 2001, calling for the elimination of SAT as a requirement for admission. (Straits Times 14 Apr 2001)