In reply to a forum letter ‘More pros than cons to NUS grade-free system’ published in Lianhe Zaobao on May 20, SMU Vice Provost (Undergraduate) Professor Pang Yang Hoong said that SMU gives its students the option to take up to six grade-free modules over the duration of their degree programme. Introduced at SMU’s inception 14 years ago, this approach allows its students to pace themselves better over the 4 years of their programme. In addition, some 85 per cent of SMU students go overseas for global exposure of which the majority spends one semester on exchange at a partner university overseas. They transfer back the pass/fail results, but not the grades, so in effect, they enjoy more than one semester grade-free at SMU. Prof Pang said this approach is holistic as SMU students also get to experience a different academic system and a different culture at their exchange university. SMU is targeting to have close to 100 per cent of its students go overseas for such an experience.