24 July 2020
From August next year, undergraduates entering Nanyang Technological University will have to take up a common core curriculum that will enable them to develop interdisciplinary knowledge and skills. The core curriculum courses will take up one-fifth of their academic workload.
Faculty from different disciplines will come together to design and teach the courses to offer a more in-depth and interdisciplinary exploration of knowledge.
For example, a course on sustainability may draw on faculty from disciplines as varied as climate science, environmental engineering, business, and environmental history.
The core curriculum will be adopted university-wide in August 2021. It will apply to all undergraduates except those taking up a medical degree, which has a different educational and professional framework.
The university has also set up the NTU Institute of Science and Technology for Humanity , an interdisciplinary centre that seeks to make sense of how technological advances impact societies, cultures and human behaviour.