Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
Undergraduate Education
Principles
The Faculty subscribes to the following two principles with respect to undergraduate education:
1) Depth and breadth
Good undergraduate education involves a balanced combination of depth and breadth. By the end of a degree programme, graduates should know one area well, that is, be aware of its main ideas, of the possibilities and limitations of its methodology, and of its current questions and problems. The best graduates will also be able to devise problems and pose questions of their own in this area. But to be properly educated, graduates should also have broad exposure to other kinds of knowledge beyond their specialism.
2) Responsibility
As mature learners, undergraduates should be given the responsibility of determining much of their own programme of study: for instance, the area of specialisation, and the scope and nature of their study outside that area. In short, there should be both flexibility and choice.
Degrees Offered
The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences offers programmes on a full-time basis, leading to the degree of:
- Bachelor of Arts with Honours [BA (Hons)]
- Bachelor of Social Sciences with Honours [BSocSci (Hons)]
- BA (Hons) or BSocSci (Hons) degree – USP students
Graduation requirements for FASS are presented in the Modular System for Cohort 2021, which contains other important information for FASS students. Students are strongly advised to print a copy of the Modular System for Cohort 2021 for their reference, available at:
https://fass.nus.edu.sg/academic-matters/modular-system/
All important announcements will be placed at the FASS website: https://fass.nus.edu.sg or https://myportal.nus.edu.sg/studentportal/fas/ug/. It is, therefore, the responsibility of students to check the Faculty website and their NUS mailboxes regularly for updates. Students are also responsible for ensuring that they are contactable via their NUS mailboxes.
English for Academic Purposes (EAP)
All candidates offered admission to the Faculty must be exempted from or be required to take the qualifying English Test (QET). Students who pass the QET will be exempted from taking the EAP course. Students who do not pass the QET will be required to take the EAP course which consists of two consecutive modules, ES1000 Basic English course and ES1102 English for Academic Purposes. These two modules are additional essential modules for students who do not pass the QET. Students with poorer English proficiency will read ES1000 first. On passing ES1000, they will proceed to read ES1102. Students with better English proficiency will proceed directly to read ES1102. A pass in ES1102 is essential for graduation.
A full description of the modules is available at the CELC website: http://www.nus.edu.sg/celc/