Academic Calendar

Fall Semester:

• Orientation: End of July - Early August
• Semester Begins: Early August
• Semester Ends: Early December

Spring Semester:

• Orientation: Early January
• Semester Begins: Early January
• Semester Ends: Early May

For exact program dates, reference the full academic calendar.

Courses

Course Load: Students must enroll in 20 units, typically five 4-unit courses. For Dyson students on the exchange with the Business School, three of your five courses must be in the Business School.

Business courses are only available to students in the Dyson school. Law courses are not open to study abroad/exchange students.

 All students are advised to be as flexible as possible with their module requirements. There are no guarantees for any modules at NUS, and some modules are in high demand and will be difficult to register for. In particular, students who are not majoring in Economics, Psychology, Computer Science and Computing (Information Sciences) will be unable to take courses in those fields, and majors may find that courses are unavailable.

In NUS, generally the faculties tend to prioritize their courses for applicants are from the same majors back at their home universities. If there are surplus places, those may go to student applicants of other majors, subject to fulfillment of prerequisites.

Students may take modules across disciplines. The ability to register will depend on a student's prerequisites, the availability of the module, and if the module will fit within a student's timetable (schedule) without overlapping other modules. Students typically register for modules in the 1000-3000 levels. 4000 level modules are available but are limited and typically not available exchange students. Modules at the 5000 level (graduate classes) are NOT available to exchange students. Modules are graded on a bell curve. Students must be prepared to study independently and participate in class. 

Since English is one of the four official languages in Singapore, Cornell students are not required to enroll in a language course at NUS. However, there are language courses available through the Centre for Language Studies (CLS) if you are interested. 

You can review the list of modules available and review the course syllabi. To review the syllabi, put the course code in the module code text box (ex. GEH1061). You will then put in the appropriate academic year and the semester you are taking the course (ex. 2018/2019, semester 2 for spring 2019 semester).

Research Opportunities

Students interested in pursuing research are able to do so through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme in Science (UROPS). Students must be supervised by a faculty member and are expected to proactively reach out to faculty members regarding supervision for the semester. Students participating in the UROPS program typically earns 4 NUS credits (basically one course) and are able to register for up to four more regular semester courses. The research is unpaid and students will not receive financial sponsorship.