Adult learning made more affordable: NUS offers 40% rebate on fees for over 80 Master’s degree programmes

Adult learning made more affordable: NUS offers 40% rebate on fees for over 80 Master's degree programmes

When Ms Bong Yuna found out that NUS was offering a new Master of Science in Climate Change and Sustainability programme, it piqued her interest. Introduced by the Department of Geographyat NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, this one-year programme will be taking in its inaugural cohort of students in the new academic year starting in August 2024.

Climate-related developments have accelerated in recent years, and the NUS alumna and former geography teacher was interested to learn more. Ms Bong was thrilled when she learnt that the programme was among selected graduate programmes offering a 40 per cent rebate on the tuition fees, under a new NUS initiative aimed at encouraging more learners to engage in continuing education and training.

Announced by NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye at the second edition of the biennial NUS Lifelong Learning Festival held on 26 July 2024, the University will be providing a 40 per cent tuition fee rebate on more than 80 self-funded Master's degree by coursework programmesfor all Singaporeans and Permanent Residents. Students enrolling in these programmes in Academic Year (AY) 2024, AY2025 and AY2026 will enjoy the substantial rebate.

This new initiative is an enhancement of the University's previous scheme which offered Singaporeans and Permanent Residents a 10 per cent rebate and its alumni a 20 per cent rebate on tuition fees for over 70 Master's degree by coursework programmes.

Explaining the reason for the enhancement, Prof Tan cited a large-scale survey commissioned by NUS in 2023, which revealed that working adults in Singapore value continuous learning but are concerned about the costs.

"We hope that this rebate will alleviate the cost considerations for learners and that you will be encouraged to learn new skills and develop yourselves further along your career journey," he elaborated at the festival which was themed Futurework 2.0: AI in Action.

To further enhance capabilities in the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI), several other developments are in the works, including four new Master's programmes on AI to be launched in 2025; and the new NUS AI Institute, which was set up in March 2024, will gather researchers across the university to accelerate research in the field and boost real-world impact.

Urging the audience to tap on the rebates and acquire new skills, Prof Tan added, "I hope that the announcement…serves as an impetus for you to explore the many learning options and pathways at NUS."

Tech that solves problems

Ultimately, technology has the potential to help people and organisations expand their capacity, said Minister for Education Chan Chun Sing, who was the Guest-of-Honour at the event. "The question is, how do we embrace technology and make it work for us?" noted Mr Chan at a dialogue with Professor Aaron Thean, NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost, on AI and the Workforce.

Citing the Ministry of Education as an example, Mr Chan said technology can enable the mass personalisation of learning, where every individual learns at their own pace and is encouraged to reach their full potential. "That is the holy grail. Are we there yet? No. But can we get closer? Yes, but we will need to reimagine how we organise ourselves, how we upskill our educators to redesign the pedagogy combined with technology," he said.

Some of these experimentations are already taking place, he said. Teachers are now using virtual tools to share their learning resources, allowing best practices to be scaled across the entire education system in a manner that was not possible before. With adaptive technology, teachers can also collect data on the specific levels their students are at.

At the Singapore Polytechnic, for example, where most lectures are delivered online and students are required to watch them before class, lecturers can gather insights on how long students spent watching the lectures as well as the parts that were replayed or skipped the most.

Such information gives educators a glimpse into how their content is being absorbed by students. "This is surgical, customised education. Not teaching to the average," he noted.

Technology, however, should be applied appropriately. "For high-ability students, they may adapt to technology like fish to water. But for high-needs students, don't start with high-tech. Start with high-touch," he said. "They need that personal trust and relationship, in a stable environment, before we can talk about acquisition of content knowledge."

Future of AI is interdisciplinary

Mr Chan's sentiment was echoed by Stanford University's Professor of Computer Science James Landay, who is also Co-Director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI. The design of any AI solution must ensure it serves the individual user, the community, and most of all, larger society, he said, in a keynote speech titled "'AI For Good' Isn't Good Enough: A Call for Human-Centred AI".

"These types of (AI) systems need to be built by interdisciplinary teams - not only technologists and AI experts, but also experts on design, on social sciences and humanities, and any domain expertise depending on the application area of the system, whether it is medicine, law, environment, or science," he said.

Some 250 guests attended the event, which was held at the NUSS Kent Ridge Guild House, and nearly 1,000 tuned in online. The event also featured seven panel discussions where 29 industry practitioners and academics from both public and private institutions addressed interesting topics such as the impact of AI in human resource, finance and healthcare sectors, as well as the relationship between AI and climate action.