Applicants for the Ph.D. program should possess an M.A. in Philosophy from NUS or equivalent qualifications from a recognized foreign university. Applicants for the M.A. program should (preferably) have a good honors degree in Philosophy from NUS or a recognized foreign university (the department may also admit students with a good Bachelor's degree with relevant research or working experience on a case-by-case basis, subject to approval by the Board of Graduate Studies). In addition, all short-listed applicants will be interviewed.

Note: There is one intake only of new graduate students, in August of each year; the application deadline is 1 November of the preceding year.

Applicants whose native tongue and medium of university instruction is not English should submit the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or International English Language Testing System (IELTS) as evidence of their proficiency in the English language. The minimum TOEFL score ranges for NUS are as follows:

• Paper-based (PBT): 580 – 600
• Computer-based (CBT): 237 – 250
• Internet-based (iBT): 85

*With effect from the August 2023 intake, applicants for the Ph.D. program to all departments/programmes* must submit GRE. Candidates have to obtain an aggregate minimum score of 320 for the Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning sections and a minimum score of 3.5 for the Analytical section.

Students with an excellent academic track record from renowned universities may request a waiver of this requirement by uploading a note in the "Documents Upload" section, providing reasons for waiver.

The GRE Board policy states that scores are reportable for five years and score reports are valid only if our University receives them directly from Educational Testing Service. The University Code is 0677.

*Graduates from NUS, NTU, SMU & SUTD with Honors (Highest distinction)/final year students who are expected to obtain Honors (Highest distinction), are exempted from the GRE requirement. Honours (Highest distinction) is defined as GPA/CGPA of at least 4.5 for NUS/NTU/SUTD and GPA of at least 3.8 for SMU at the time of graduation (and at three and a half years for final year students).

Information on graduate studies at Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences can be found at the FASS Graduate Studies website. For detailed instructions on the application process, go to the page on Graduate Admissions. Note, however, that in place of the statement of purpose and research proposal, applicants to the department's graduate program should instead submit a short Statement of Research Interest (max. 500 words) and a Writing Sample (max. 3,000 words for M.A.; max. 5,000 words for Ph.D.).

The university provides generous research scholarships and tuition waivers, as well as travel grants for conference attendance to graduate students selected on the basis of their academic performance. General information concerning application forms, closing dates, available funding and similar matters may be found at the Graduate Studies page of the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences website.