These are some of the things that the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) undergraduate of the future can look forward to: graduate from a brand-new medical school established in collaboration with the world-renowned Imperial College London; leverage online learning platforms and high-tech classrooms that foster group discussion and interaction; attend courses that go beyond their core disciplines; and stay in new hostels with trendy spaces for students of different backgrounds to meet, exchange ideas and get to know each other better.

The whole idea is to nurture graduates who will have an even sharper competitive edge once they enter the workforce.

The ideal NTU graduate will be: an upright person and a smart leader who also possesses a strong social conscience, expert knowledge and skills, and an enquiring and creative mind. It is NTU's hope that the new undergraduate experience that it is moulding will give its students a distinct competitive advantage in the new global talent marketplace.

A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Learning

The most apparent and immediate change is to the undergraduate curriculum. This is being done to allow students to take courses outside of their core disciplines.

Following the recommendations made in 2011 by its own review commission, NTU cut the total course content of its degree programmes by up to 14 per cent. It also introduced a number of new minors in areas ranging from environmental to sports sciences; implemented a new set of broad-based prescribed electives; and made its course in Environment Sustainability a compulsory cornerstone of the first-year curriculum. The increasingly interdisciplinary nature of the NTU experience is designed to produce T-shaped individuals who have a depth of specialised knowledge in one discipline and good, working knowledge in a number of other areas. Professor Bertil Andersson, President of NTU, hopes that the reduction in the overall course requirements will free up time for group-based learning and self-reflection.

"Reflect - that is a good word. Students should take time to understand what and how they are learning, and to review, plan and take responsibility for their own learning. Students should also be engaged in student activities, leadership activities, entrepreneurship, and running their own coffee shops and so on. In today's world, more employers are looking for broader skills. It is not just the major discipline - the softer skills are becoming more important. If you are an employer and you have five top-scoring candidates, you would select the applicant with the better soft skills. And if one candidate has been a student leader, then that's the most attractive one, because he has already proven that he can lead.

"Of course, there are students who are not so used to this kind of thinking. They say, 'Oh, if I don't amass and learn more knowledge, I will be less competitive.' But you see, more is not always better. When it comes to learning, you have quantity and quality. I cannot only push the quantitative.

"Also, scientific knowledge and information is doubling every five years. I came here in 2007, that's five years ago, and in that short time the world has generated as much information as it did in the whole of the period from the birth of Christ up until 2007. That is fantastic, but it is also a scary thought. This also shows why we cannot continue to deliver all our information via lectures, because then a university education would probably take ten years. The fact is that one has to prioritise knowledge in the modern world because we have an absolute tsunami of information these days - and this makes the job of a university president very difficult.

"One has to realise there is a lot of false information and obscure information online. Therefore, you have to teach students how to evaluate information, because not all of what you see on the Internet is true, so you have to foster a critical mind, or you could say, a quality-assurance mind."

For Professor Andersson, the curriculum also has to encourage entrepreneurship. "When I was President of a Swedish university, we had 300 start-ups around the campus. 150 of these were started by students. Here, I don't see that. It's not that Singaporean students aren't smart. They are super smart. But they don't see their role as creating things. A few have, but much less than the Swedes.

"That is another reason why we have revamped the undergraduate curriculum. As a university we should give them the freedom to be entrepreneurs and start companies without being punished." >> More

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2011年7月出任南大校长的安博迪，来自瑞典。他说： "从前是教授站在300人的大讲堂，滔滔不绝地讲两个小时的课，学生静坐在那里听课、做笔记，当中还有不少人也许无心听课、思想开小差。现在的学生不再是到讲堂来的'消费者'， '单向式'的教学已经不合时宜了。"

减少主修 增加跨系选修

南大大幅度改变本科的修课制度，所有2011年以后入学的本科生，必修科目减少14％，腾出来的时间让学生自习或自行安排其他学习活动。同时，学生还可以选择更多跨系课程。南大工程学院调整了本系和跨系课程比例， 成为70与30 之比，工程系学生可选修30％其他院系的课程，人文学院学生可以选修45％的跨系课程。

南大聘请专家协助执行制度改革，但是要改变实施了数十年的制度，并非旦夕可以见效。最大的挑战是说服南大师生甚至家长调整心态。当校方提出大幅度调整本科修课制度时，有不少家长质疑这个做法。 "家长认为他们付钱给孩子上大学，要求修课时数越多越好，怎么校方反过来删减上课时间呢？"

要说服教授改变教学方式也是一大挑战，安博迪说："教授都是各领域的专家，很有教学经验，习惯了到讲堂上课。一时之间要他们改变授课方式，这样的'文化改革'相当不容易。但这是世界趋势，我们无法规避。"

今天的教学强调互动，教学方式要随时改变，安博迪认为："现代课堂普遍应用科技，教授的讲课已经能录影下来，再把影片放到网上去让学生随时随地观看。教授已不需亲身到讲堂面对面传授知识，人在新加坡也可以上美国哈佛大学的课了。"

还有学生认为修课少了，等于少学了知识，会变得没有竞争力。这样的学习态度必须改变。他说："上大学不仅是上课和考试，还应该积极培养其他才能。减少上课时间不是让学生窝在家里什么都不做或变得懒散，而是要积极把握这些'多出来'的时间，放在思考、反省上，或是参与更多学生活动，甚至创业上。总之，我们希望南大学生不只是重视学术成绩，除了勤读书、背笔记外，也应多方拓展其他方面的才能和软技能。" >> 更多

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