Polytechnic diploma holders admitted to either 3-* or 4-year programmes will be granted advanced placement amounting to 20 Units of Unrestricted Electives (outside Major), which is equivalent to one semester of advanced standing.

In other words, you are exempted from reading 20 Units of Unrestricted Electives (outside Major), or a semester's worth of courses (since recommended workload per semester is 20 Units).

Q1. How many Units must I read?

To complete your Unrestricted Electives (UEs):

• For students from Cohort 2021, you will need to accumulate 28 Units of UEs.
• For students up to Cohort 2020, you only have to complete 16 Units of UEs (8 Units can be any course within or outside your major, and the other 8 Units must be from outside your major).

To complete the Bachelor of Arts programme*, you will need to complete 100 Units of courses in total. To complete the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) or Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) programme, you will need to complete 140 Units of courses.

Note that students under special programmes may have different graduation requirements. If you intend to take a minor or a second major, it is still possible for you to do so. It will just mean that your APC will be in excess and you will have to take more courses.

*Please note that from Cohort 2021 onwards, all CHS students will embark on a 4-year direct honours programme (160 Units). The 3-year Bachelor of Arts programme will no longer be available.

Q2. How do we know what courses we are exempted from? Must we apply for APC/ course exemption?

The exemptions (or APCs) will be automatically given to you. All the APCs granted are counted towards your unrestricted elective requirement.  You should be able to see the exempted courses sometime in early September in your student record (EduRec).

Q3: May I give up the 20 Units of polytechnic APCs (granted under my unrestricted electives)?

For polytechnic admits of Cohort 2021 onwards, you are eligible to give up the 20 Units of APCs, granted towards unrestrictive electives, in exchange for additional 12 Units of Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) options.  This will be done in an exercise in the middle of your Semester 2 at Year 1.  Please refer to RO’s website for the details.

If you take up this option, please note that you would need to read additional courses to complete your unrestricted elective requirement.  It would not be the range stated in Q1 above.  The additional Units needed for your unrestricted electives will vary depending on your option.