Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that by 2020, 40 per cent of each school-going cohort will be able to have a university education - a jump from the current 27 per cent. To meet this target, the annual intake by the local universities will increase by 3,000 places, from 13,000 to 16,000.

As Singapore’s fifth autonomous university, Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) will start to offer its own degrees from August 2014. These will run alongside the 27 full-time degree programmes, offered in partnership with eleven reputable overseas universities. The three new full-time degree programmes, with a total of 200 places, are in the areas of sustainable infrastructure engineering, information and communications technology and accountancy.

SIM University (UniSIM), which is the only private university in Singapore, will also add three government-funded, full-time degrees to its part-time offerings in 2014. 200 places are also available for these courses in accountancy, finance and marketing. With a few days to the close of the application period (closing on 15 April), UniSIM has already received 1,500 applications for the 200 places. Among these, 60 per cent of the applicants are diploma graduates, while the remainder are A-Level holders.

The ones applying for these programmes will have to go through a three-part admission process — watching a video and submitting an essay about it, followed by one-on-one and group interviews, and concluding with a reflection essay. Applicants will be first shortlisted based on grades and non-academic skills like leadership. Though there is no clear weightage to either criterion, UniSIM have stated that it will place very serious consideration on the latter category.

Once enrolled, the new batch of students will be given more flexibility in charting their studies.  They can mix and match full-time and part-time modules to fulfil the credit requirement for graduation.  For example, a student who has found employment can switch to part-time studies if necessary.  Tuition fees will also be calculated according to the modules they pick, meaning the amount may differ each semester.

UniSIM also has plans to launch new full-time programmes in early childhood education and social work in the near future.

In addition, Ministry of Education has named UniSIM to be the host for Singapore's third law school. This new part-time undergraduate course is expected to take in about 75 students and will be geared towards attracting mid-career professionals who want to make law their new career.  It is a general law degree, with a focus on training prospective lawyers keen to practise criminal law and family law.  Besides the traditional core subjects, UniSIM students will be trained in the new emerging areas, such as computer forensics and non-adversarial processes like mediation and counselling. To provide strategic direction for the new school, a steering committee and a separate curriculum working group were formed by Ministry of Law, late last year.  The start date of the programme has not been announced.