Australian universities better than Singapore's?

 Are Australian universities better than Singapore's universities?

I try to give an unbiased view on this question,using my account, as well as my friends’ experiences.

Singapore universities are well-recognized in the world. It is easier to get jobs globally upon graduation. Most of my friends are considering of going to overseas to further their studies for their graduate school.

The prestige attracts talented individuals from Overseas and Singapore, making the competition in studies extremely competitive in nature as the grading system is based on the bell curve, where your grades are pegged based on the performance of the cohort. This means that if everyone scores a 80+, it could end up being a B instead of a A. As an example, I had two mid-terms of ~ 30% weightage, where I scored 70% and 80% respectively, only to end up getting a B, which is three grades away from A. Generally, people who fared well in their high school continue to do well, while people who got into university via borderline admission like myself, struggle throughout the university education.

Quite a number of students do not really have a co-curricular activity in university as they dedicate time for studies instead of joining a sport or club activity. I used to be in a few, but left due to the academic pressure within the university. People in Singapore universities also placed a lot of attention over grades as opposed to the learning process, doing the minimal in order to achieve optimal results.

I made the decision to transfer to an Australia university after a semester and summer school in a Singapore university.

1. Improvement is extremely difficult in Singapore (e.g. improving GPA)

Consider the aspect of taking core modules with the same cohort of students that triumph you initially and the increasing difficulty of the core modules as time passes. A number of my seniors are forced to take easy elective modules to improve their gpa, while their core modules continue to stagnate or dropped in their performance. It just isn’t easy to improve in the bell curve system. On the other hand, Australia universities grade based on absolute scoring,which makes it marginally easier to score well, especially if you invested the time and effort. A friend of mine went from a 3.25/5.0 in NUS to a 6.375/7.0 in UWA. There is also the concept of grade-scaling there, where the grades are up-scaled if the paper is too difficult, etc.

2. More study-life balance in Australia

In Singapore, you are taking an average of 5 modules each semester. In Australia, you are taking an average of 4 modules each semester. Each Singapore module workload tends to be higher than in Australia. For instance, one of my current core modules has 2 CA tests and another one has 3 CA tests. In Australia, it is usually just 1 CA test. The same friend that I mentioned above, used to studying his head out on weekend nights in a Singapore university, but was chilling out with his friends on weekend nights in an Australia university.

3.More forgiving system

In general, you are allowed to retake your examinations in Australia if you failed your modules and get a pass grade overwritten over a fail grade. However, the grades you get in Singapore, exist as the grade itself. The foundation programme in Australia opens up avenues for easier admission to university programmes. For instance, you fared poorly in your high school but hope to have a shot in university, you do not necessarily have to re-take the high school examinations all over again, but going to a 6–9 months foundation course can direct you to a university programme. Some foundation courses direct students straight towards the second year of their university so they do not waste that ~1 year of their life in the foundation course.

At the end of the day, it is up to individual preferences. In general, if you are an above average student and do not have the expenses to afford overseas education, Singapore university is better than Australia university.

If you are an average or below average student and have the expenses to afford overseas education, Australia university is better than Singapore university.

Update

At the university level, Singapore university gives you the content but they would like you to use your thinking capability, that's when they have to make exams harder.(spoonfeeding)

As for an Australian university, most of the exams in Australia are much easier as students need to source information themselves so they can't make exams hard (more independent centric learning).

So, I realized average Singaporeans tend to do better in Australia system, but the reverse isn't necessarily true since it is harder to build thinking skills, as compared to getting the right resources to study for exams.

After a year in a Singapore university, I will rather pick harder content/material and easier questions than easier content/material and harder questions any day, after witnessing how difficult questions can throw off even the most capable students. 

● Well, let's just say normally Singaporeans who go Australia for Degree courses, are the ones who are unable to enrol into Singaporean universities…

● Poor work life balance is due to unis bad planning and teaching standards. Like most of Singapore, there are no standards, just shit execution. 

● Great write up indeed

●It will depend on whether your aim is to get a vocational qualification or an education. The problem with vocational quals is that there is no way of knowing if they will still be pertinent in a decades time.

●Chatbots have made your own thinking unnecessary 😂

●Fantastic answer

●Local unis have bad standards, it is actually easy but just that your friend was an idiot that woke up after a while

●Unbiased view? Wow, how magnanimous of you.

● Yes, totally agree with that! Going overseas takes you out of your comfort zone to interact with others from a different background. There is also more assessments on presentations in overseas universities,which is lacking heavily in engineering and sciences within the local universities.

● As for creativity, I can attest to that as well. Take for instance, you see a problem that the overseas country has resolved but Singapore hasn’t resolved yet. This in turn,creates an opportunity for you to implement a solution to the problem using ideas from overseas. That is the reason why Singapore prefers PhD graduates from overseas universities as they bring in a wealth of knowledge and exposure, which helps them to stand out against their local counterparts.