S'pore Poly to add biomed, media courses
AUG 18, 2004S'pore Poly to add biomed, media courses
SINGAPORE'S oldest polytechnic looks set to keep up with the times by offering new diploma courses next year.
The new courses will most likely be related to the biomedical technology or media fields, said Singapore Polytechnic principal Low Wong Fook at its 44th graduation ceremony yesterday.
Keeping up with the times was also something Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam touched on in his speech at the ceremony.
Noting the growing opportunities in new fields such as media and the life sciences, he urged graduands to be versatile.
He said: 'What matters most in the job market will be your willingness to pick up new knowledge and skills, whichever industry you are in.
'And to keep looking for new applications and new ways of doing things.'
Among the 5,234 students graduating this year are the first batch of graduands from 14 new courses.
The polytechnic, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, offers 29 diploma and 30 post-diploma courses.
This includes two diploma programmes in creative media design and landscape architecture.
The creative media design diploma is so popular, the polytechnic had to turn away about two-thirds of the 151 applicants.
Mr Tharman said polytechnic graduates are known to employers for their 'perseverance and determination to succeed'.
He cited the example of Mr Sri Kumaran Raman, 22, winner of this year's Tay Eng Soon Gold Medal, one of the polytechnic's top prizes.
The former Yusof Ishak Secondary student did poorly in his O levels, scoring an aggregate of 27 points.
That performance jolted the oldest of five children into bucking up, and he has not looked back since.
He hit the books and finished among the top 5 per cent of his Institute of Technical Education cohort and also aced his electronic, computer and communication engineering course at the polytechnic.
Now, he is a second-year electrical and electronic engineering student at Nanyang Technological University.
Said his father, Mr Sri Raman Pillai, 53, a security supervisor: 'My son has made me so proud. He works so hard.
'I have a dream that someday, he will be somebody in Singapore society.'
Copyright @ 2004 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.
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