In an article which discussed whether schools should enforce community work, it was highlighted that SMU has made community work a requirement for its students to complete 80 hours of community service in order to graduate since the university opened in 2000. The service performed, however, is not graded.  Since 2013, all second-year law students from SMU and NUS have to perform 20 hours of pro bono work, which is, however, not graded. For SMU law students, this accounts for part of the 80-hour requirement. SMU Dean of Students Ong Siow Heng noted that mandatory community work could have encouraged students to volunteer more of their time, adding that SMU students, on average, put in 145 hours of community work, more than the required 80 hours.