Important FAQs
Information about SEP
The main thing to note is that for Faculty-level and Departmental-level partner universities, the places allocated will be solely for FASS students and for major students majoring in the department. The process for application and selection is the same. Students may apply to universities in either category. Please note that students may not be able to enroll in modules out of the college/faculty or department we have agreements with.
Please check with the respective departments for those who wish to go on SEP with a Department-level partner university.
The list of universities with SEP places available to FASS students will be shared with students. You may choose up to 5 SEP partner universities (either at University-wide or Faculty/Departmental-level); but you must be judicious in your choice of SEP partner universities because allocation will be based on the:
- FASS student's preferance (if any) among applicants to that University;
- Number of places available at the SEP partner university;
- Partner university's popularity.
Yes, you may still apply for these universities. However, you will need to take Leave of Absence (LOA) to account for the overlap. Apply for Short term LOA if you can return to NUS by the start of Week 3 or a semester LOA if you cannot return by the start of Week 3. Please check with fashelp@nus.edu.sg on when is the latest you can return on a short term LOA. You will have to take a semester LOA if your return is deemed too late.
Please take measures to mitigate the effect of missing classes as this cannot be used as special consideration for subsequent poor performance. Please enlist the help of your fellow students as well as to inform the lecturers of the respective modules that you will be returning late and obtain their permission to join their classes late. We advise you to check well in advance with the lecturers as they are not obliged to permit student to join the classes late.
Some ways to return earlier is to
1. Request for earlier exams
2. Request for assignments in lieu of exams
3. Request for your major department to proctor the exams
If the above is not possible, please continue to stay on at the partner university to complete your exams. The above is at the discretion of the partner university.
-
-
The application for the Overseas SEP in the next academic year is conducted on a semester-basis. If you want to go on SEP in the next Semester 1, or 2 or the full year, you can apply for the 1st round. The 2nd round is for students to apply for only Semester 2 of the next academic year. The approximate timeline is as follows:
- Round 1: August/ September of every year
- Round 2: February/ March of every year
Please keep a look out for the announcement in your email as well as Study Abroad @ FASS blog and Study Abroad Facebook.
You can also apply to do a local SEP at NTU or SMU. The application is also conducted on a semester-basis and listed on Registrar's Office site for Singapore Universities local SEP.
-
Eligibility for SEP
You must fulfil all of the requirements below:
- A registered full-time undergraduate student
- A Singapore citizen or permanent resident, other nationals will be considered only on a case to case basis and
- Have successfully completed at least 1 semester upon application and 2 semesters upon admission to the assigned Partner University;
- Have a minimum CAP of at least 3.00 and preferably no grade below 'C'.
- Have the financial resources for personal and living expenses for the duration of the SEP
- Good disciplinary record
Students are only allowed to embark on one overseas and one local SEP. If you have already gone on one overseas exchange; you are generally not eligible for overseas exchange again unless you were successful in our 1+1 Sweet Deal programme. However, you can apply for the local exchange. This is vice-versa for students who went on local exchange.
Financial Consideration
GRO offers scholarships and awards for students who successfully obtain a SEP offer at a Partner University. You may also seek assistance from external organisations.
You will only need to pay the usual NUS tuition fees for your semester abroad as per the SEP agreement between NUS and the partner university. But you will need to have enough financial resources for airfare and living expenses. This amount can vary from country to country and as a general rule, we suggest setting aside at least S$15,000/semester (estimated). Please refer to the partner universities' websites or the Internet for more information. Please do note that some universities may require students to pay for additional application and other miscellaneous fees.
Please do note that the proof for financial ability to fund your exchange will need to be presented soon after you receive the internal offer for student exchange. Please ensure that you can produce the relevant documents at the given time.
Procedures of SEP
Students will be notified of the application timeline through an email blast as well on the Study Abroad @ FASS and you can then apply through the EduRec - GE. Please submit your SEP application through EduRec - GE before the Faculty's given deadline and to include these necessary details:
- Personal statement: Why you want to participate in the SEP; your choice of universities, how you think you will be a good NUS ambassador and in concrete ways on how your exchange can benefit NUS and your fellow schoolmates
- Ranking of partner university: FASS works on a no ranking basis. The assumption is that students are equally happy with any of their choices. Hence, please only apply for partner universities that you are interested in receiving an offer from. Students can indicate any preference for a partner university in the application form.
- Study plan details: A tentative study plan when you apply for SEP (This is a tentative study plan. Please DO NOT approach any SEP coordinator for module mapping at this point). The study plan will be based on the modules available at the university in which you are interested
- Letter of undertaking to be submitted in hardcopy to your major Department (if applicable)
Please ensure that your application is complete. Incomplete applications may be disregarded. We would also like to remind you to put in your application early to avoid the server downtime due to heavy usage of EduRec near the end of the application period.
You are encouraged to surf the websites of the partner universities to find out modules that are currently offered to have a better idea of the modules that you may want to read in the partner universities. Alternatively, you may want to look at the Global Relations Office (GRO) pages relating to partner universities.
You will know the outcome of your SEP application sometime in Dec/Jan (Round 1) and May/Jun (Round 2). As there may be several rounds of emails informing students of their application status, please be patient and both rounds will officially end around 3 months after the end of the application deadlines and all students who have applied will have receive an outcome by then.
The outcome is in the form of an internal offer will be sent to you via email with the indicative choice of Partner University for your acceptance. Please note that this internal offer is final and if you reject it, you will not be placed on the waiting list for your other choices. Please also ensure that you housekeep your NUS mailbox so that the internal offer email will not be bounced as we will not resend the internal offer. Do check your Junk/Spam box too.
For unsuccessful applications, you will also receive an email informing you that you had not been placed on SEP.
For students on waiting list, you will also receive an email to that effect.
In the same notification for the internal offer, you will also receive instructions to prepare the documents to be submitted to the partner universities to secure your SEP place as well as the deadline for the submission to the Dean's Office. Please read through them to familiarise yourself with the process.
You will need to get a letter from your sponsoring organization citing the amount of financial support that they are giving you as well as the duration of this financial support.
You may do so provided that your bank offers such assurances in writing. However as this is a document required by the partner universities, we cannot guarantee that these documents will be acceptable for them. If these documents are rejected, then it would cause a delay in the confirmation of your space in that partner university and NUS cannot be held responsible for this.
It can take several months before you receive the acceptance packages from the partner universities. From the time you submit the application form and supporting documents to Dean's Office, it will take approximately 3 to 4 weeks before they are sent to the partner universities.
The partner universities will then need time to process your applications. Please understand that this is outside of the control of FASS and NUS. We ask that you be patient. If you have still not heard from the partner university 2 months or less prior to the start of the exchange semester in that partner university, please then write to Study Abroad@FASS.
Other Administrative Matters
Once you have accepted the internal offer, if you choose to withdraw, then the prevailing admin fee ($200 or $300) will be collected from you via your student bill from the Office of Financial Services.
No, RO will extract information from EduRec and automatically update your status as "On student exchange" when your SEP period starts.
You may lodge an appeal for re-consideration. But be aware that there are several factors that could have resulted in your rejection. Firstly the choice of the universities that you have chosen may have been extremely popular and very competitive and hence you were unsuccessful on that basis. Also if you have modules with C grade and below, this can also adversely affect your application. Also Departments may impose more stringent requirements for their major students in SEP; in which case your appeal will be re-directed to the Department for their consideration. You might also have incomplete information in your application.
Also in the case of exchange application for the graduating semester, more stringent criteria are used for the approval process.
For popular partner universities especially in North American and the UK, in order to allow the maximum number of students to go on SEP, students allocated SEP in the universities in these regions are only given one semester.
Appeal for extension would only be possible if another student withdraws from their place in 2nd semester of any academic year or if extra spaces were made available for that academic year However this is possible but highly unlikely. The likelihood of an extension is thus extremely low.
Academic Consideration for SEP
For students heading for exchange starting from August 2016, all module mapping activities have been automated. As soon as you accept the internal offer in EduRec - GE, an automatic email notification will be sent to your student email account once you have accepted the internal offer. This notification informs you that the module mapping worksheet for your exchange partner university (PU) and term has been created for you to submit your module mapping requests. Please do not start the mapping request procedure as yet, as it is far too early.
Please only carry out module mapping procedures after you have received confirmation of registered courses from your PU for the exchange. However if the PU could only confirm the courses at the start of your exchange, it will be prudent for you to start the mapping request procedures no less than 1 ½ months before the start of your exchange.
The module mapping requests generally take about 1 month. In order to aid this process, you should provide the syllabi of the PU courses in your module mapping worksheet. You can download the user guide here. (Please note that this is only for FASS students. Please read the whole document).
Please read the MC Ratio and ensure that you are reading sufficient credits at the PU to merit an equivalent 20 MC workload at NUS. Please note that this is a strict requirement. A workload of 20 MC may not always means it is mapped to 5 modules. For example, with a study plan of 15 ECTS mapped to major and 15 ECTS mapped to UE and a MC ratio of 30 ECTS = 20 MC, the projected credit transfer breakdown is 10 MC major and 10 MC UE. It still totals 20 MC but you only transfer four modules worth 4 MC each. The other 4 MC will be split into 2 MC in major and 2 MC in UE.
Please note that the departments approves the content of the module and not the MC allocated even if it is approved to an actual code. MC earned will be based on the MC Ratio.
Please take note of the following:
Students planning to do minor courses while on exchange
Disciplinary minor
Please submit the module mapping worksheet as per the relevant Department who then approve the module(s).
Multi-disciplinary minor
Students who are planning to read modules to fulfil their multi-disciplinary minor requirements will have to check with the module convener via Office of Programmes (OoPs) on the suitability of the PU modules once the discipline- specific Department has approved the module. For example, if you have been approved for a Philosophy related module by the Department, please then write separately to the Office of Programmes (OoPs) for the Religious Studies minor (RS) convener to approve it as counting toward the RS minor.
Global Studies Students
For Global Studies (GL) major students, once you have received the module mapping from the appropriate Departments, you will then have to check with the GL SEP coordinator on the suitability of the approved modules (non GL-coded modules) that you would like to use to meet your major requirements. You can email the department at polbox16@nus.edu.sg
Students planning to do law and language modules while on exchange
For module mapping of law and language modules, you are required to provide the list of required information in the module mapping request worksheet under the section “Other information”. Please note that incomplete information on your module mapping worksheet will result in the modules being rejected by Law and Centre for Language Studies.
For law modules, please provide the following information:
- How many credits is this course rated in the host University? E.g. 6 ECTS = 4 MC (MC Ratio)
- How many host university credits does your home faculty at NUS require you to do in a semester at the host university? E.g. 30 ECTS = 20 MC
- Which semester and AY are you going or have gone for exchange? E.g. Semester 1, AY2016/17
For language modules, please provide the following information:
- Module description
- Detailed course content
- Course syllabus (progression) and grammar
- Course Structure (number of hours; weekly and total)
- URL to course website or email from course coordinator
As long as you receive credits for your course at the PU, you may transfer the credits for that module and if the module is read on a pass/fail basis, credits can still be transferred back to NUS as long as you pass the course. However if you fail and no credits are given by the PU, then no credit transfer can be effected.
No, in fact we encourage our students to explore modules that they would not be able to read at NUS especially in disciplines that they are interested or specialized in. You can also read UE or breadth modules while overseas. However, given that only credits earned by approved modules can be transferred, the content of the module you are interested in should fall into a discipline in NUS.
Please refer to above question for the procedures for module mapping.
Students admitted before 2015/2016 are allowed to read modules in the partner university and map them as GEMs. Please refer to the GEM site for more information.
Students admitted after 2015/2016 will not be able to fulfil their General Education requirements in the partner university.
Departments will generally not allow for an overseas module to replace their exposure module. The exposure module is the introductory module setting out the basics of the subject that is taught in NUS. If you are to read the module while on exchange, you will not have the full understanding of the subject that is offered in NUS.
The basic rule is that a normal semester credit load of our partner university is equivalent to the same MC load for a normal semester load at NUS. Therefore depending on the credits loading of the overseas module, it can be equivalent to 4 MC or any other value.
The MC Exchange Ratio is listed on our FASS website. Please ensure that you read sufficient credits at the partner university in order to transfer back the equivalent of 20 MC workload at NUS.
Given that FASS' general policy, in terms of credit equivalency with our partner universities, is that credit earned in a normal semester load at the host institution counts for the same as the number of MC earned in a normal semester at NUS. With this policy, we can have two scenarios:
- Workload at PU-equivalent to NUS
- Workload at PU meant for exchange students only and hence less than normal semester load due to tuition fee parity
Given the scenario one above, if the 3 modules at the partner university is a normal semester load for the students there, then the 3 modules will count towards 20 MC. Hence there is no need for you to read additional modules. An example below will make this clearer. The Department/ Faculty will offer dummy codes to reflect the additional MCs.
Eg. University of Copenhagen Module A, B and C= 30 ECTS= 20 MC
Module A 10 ECTS (Major)
Module B 10 ECTS (Major)
Module C 10 ECTS (UE)
MCs are calculated like this:
Total ECTS under Major 20 ECTS = 13 MC
Total ECTS under UE 10 ECTS = 7MC
Total ECTS overall 30 ECTS = 20 MC
To maximise your credits 1 MC is moved from Major to UE. (please note that we only move 1 MC)
Hence, MC transferable will be Major 12 MC and UE 8 MC. Dummy codes will be added to make up for the MC earned.
However if the 3 modules is a special load afforded to foreign students and not a full semester load, then you may need to read more modules to make up the difference. However, there will be instances where the number of modules you can read at the Partner University had been determined by our SEP agreement so you will not be able to read additional modules during SEP. It also means that you would get less than 20 MC transferred for a semester away.
Therefore there will always be a possibility that you will have to make up for the shortfall in modules in the semesters before you leave for SEP or in the semester after you return. Some students make up for their modules by reading extra modules in the regular semesters or by reading modules during Special Term. Some students choose to stay an extra semester to complete their graduation requirements.
Boston University's normal semester load is 16 credits, and you read 4 modules of 4 credits (of which 2 from your major and 2 for UE), therefore the allocation of MC is as follows:
| NUS MC | Dummy codes | |
| Module A- 4 credits- major | (5 MC) | EC3741, EC3711 |
| Module B- 4 credits- major | (5 MC) | EC2741, EC2711 |
| Module C- 4 credits- UE | (5 MC) | SC2741, SC3711 |
| Module D- 4 credits- UE | (5 MC) | SC3741, SC3712 |
Yes you can read overseas modules to fulfill MTBP requirements, under the following conditions:
- The SEP must be recognised by FASS and NUS;
- The module(s) read on SEP must be taught in the relevant mother tongue;
- Module(s) read on SEP must be on graded basis and not on a pass/fail basis at the partner university. If the module is not offered on a graded basis, credits will not be transferred and cannot be used to fulfill the MTBP requirements; and
- A maximum of 16 MCs of modules read on SEP may be used to fulfill the MTBP requirements.
Please do note that S/U option is only applicable to modules that you have read at NUS. S/U does not apply to modules read overseas. If you read a module overseas that is graded on pass/fail basis, as long as you pass the module, you may transfer the credit for this module. Once transfer of credits is completed, you will see 'OVS' graded for these modules that you read and passed overseas. They are never reflected as 'S/U'.
You may still do so by refering to the answer to question 28. However please note that some Departments do not allow for retrospective mapping and therefore you will not be able to do so. You also run the risk that the courses may not be approved as approval for module mapping is not guaranteed especially for non-FASS courses.
In this situation, you will find that you will not be able to transfer the credits that you read on your exchange towards your degree requirements. This may result in having to overload in your future semesters at NUS or possibly cause a delay in your graduation plan.
Transfer of SEP Credits
No, this process has to be initiated by you. Please do note that failure to do so can result in your not being able to secure higher level modules (owing to pre-requisites not recorded in your academic records) or to participate in the module pre-allocation exercise and even to graduate. Please submit the Credit Transfer Form and a scanned copy of your transcript to studyabroadfass@nus.edu.sg. Please do not click anything in SIS.
Please write to the partner university to enquire about the status of your transcript and also to find out from them if the transcript was sent to NUS directly and if so, to find out the location where they had sent it. If transcripts are sent to RO or FASS directly, we will inform you via email to come and collect the transcripts when we receive them.
Please refer to the following webpage pertaining to your cohort on the maximum number of credits that you can transfer.
Please submit your transfer of credits documents at least one month before the start of examinations in the semester you are back at NUS to the Dean's Office. Please note that it will take up to 2 months for credit transfers to be completed. Otherwise the credits for your overseas modules will be transferred late and your graduation or promotion could be delayed.
The courses you read overseas would only have their credits transferred. The grades obtained are not transferable. This means that modules read while on exchange will not have an impact on your CAP.