Review Polytechnic Courses to Ensure They Stay Relevant to Industry Needs
Ministry of EducationSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Dr Lim Wee Kiak’s inquiry regarding the frequency of polytechnic course reviews for industry relevance and the status of unpopular courses. Senior Parliamentary Secretary Low Yen Ling responded that polytechnics review course offerings annually and conduct curriculum reviews every three years, with IT courses updated more frequently. She declined to identify the least popular courses to protect current students but noted that seven were retired in 2017 due to low interest and industry repositioning. Minister Ong Ye Kung will address these alignment issues further during the upcoming Committee of Supply debates.
Transcript
1 Dr Lim Wee Kiak asked the Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) (a) how frequently does the Ministry review the courses offered by the polytechnics so as to stay relevant to the needs of industries; (b) what are the two least popular courses; and (c) how many courses have been cancelled last year because of a lack of student interest.
The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministers for Education (Ms Low Yen Ling) (for the Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills)): Mr Speaker, the polytechnics strive to ensure that their courses are relevant to the needs of industry. Every year, they review the range of their diploma course offerings and make changes to drop or start new courses. In addition, every three years or so, they do an in-depth review of the curriculum of each course. For courses in sectors, such as information technology (IT), the curriculum is reviewed more frequently, given the fast-changing nature of the industry.
Popularity of a course can be measured in different ways, such as ratio of applications to places, or the aggregate score of the last student posted to the course. The popularity of courses changes from year to year, so I would rather not disclose which are the two least popular ones this year. It is also a disservice to students currently in these courses.
In 2017, seven full-time courses were retired, partly due to a lack of interest from students, and partly to reposition them to meet the needs of industry better.
Minister Ong Ye Kung will address this issue further at the upcoming Committee of Supply debates.