Friday, March 20, 2009

NUS vs NTU II: Chemistry

With regards to your question about the migration of experienced professors from NUS to NTU, I shall not comment much except to say that you will find both good and not so good staff on both sides. And be careful when someone uses the word "good" as it can mean many different things. E.g. "Good" staff doing good research may not mean they teach well. Generally in the universities (incl. NUS, NTU), staff are appraised based more on their research than teaching.

One common misconception about NTU is its direct honours system. The often heard advertisement is getting honours after 4 years of study in CBC. HOWEVER, this is true only if your results are good. If you just scrape through, you either get a "pass", "pass with merit" or "3rd class honours" (many consider this as no honours at all) after 4 years. On the other hand, NUS system is study 3 years. If your results are not good, you immediately get a degree. If your results are good, you are allowed to continue for another year to get your honours. Therefore, the NTU system carrries a greater risk in terms of opportunity cost.

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