SMU will be introducing a redesigned undergraduate Core Curriculum from Academic Year 2019-2020, which focuses on three inter-related pillars of learning – Capabilities, Communities and Civilisations. It will also integrate internship and community service into its new Core Curriculum as credit-bearing programmes, in a move to emphasise the importance of soft-skills. To encourage multi-disciplinary learning, a new Exploratory Course scheme will be introduced to encourage students to experiment with classes outside their major. SMU also plans to pilot a credit-bearing work-study option that will allow students to take on up to six months of internship while concurrently studying on campus. These new developments were announced at a press briefing where SMU Provost, Professor Lily Kong, shared the recommendations of its Blue Ribbon Commission on Undergraduate Education.

SMU Provost Professor Lily Kong said that the Commission had consulted broadly and identified a set of SMU graduate identities, that is, graduates who have an independent mind while being dependable in deeds; and graduates who think deeply and broadly and at the same time, act to create value at home and abroad. The enhancements in the new Core Curriculum are designed to nurture graduates with these attributes.

“Enhancing the internship and community service experience serves to strengthen the students’ learning. By evaluating the learning outcomes of these activities, SMU also hopes to strengthen our students’ soft skills, as well as send the strong message that these are important components of the SMU education,” said SMU Dean of Students and Professor of Sociology (Practice) Paulin Straughan.

Fourth year LKCSB student Sun Wanxin welcomes the new Exploratory Course scheme: “Many SMU students already pursue courses outside of their Majors out of interest; with this new scheme students will not be unduly concerned about the impact on their grades.” First year LKCSB student Tan Ka Ling, who plans to take up the second major in Health Economics and Management, said, “A typical summer internship may not provide me with enough opportunities to really know how it is like working in the healthcare industry. The new work-study is therefore attractive to me. That we will be guided by a faculty mentor also gives me more confidence in fulfilling the programme’s deliverables.”