SIM Global Education

FOR Bachelor of Arts in Communication student Melissa Lim Cai Ying, 22, enrolling in SIM Global Education (SIM GE) was a no-brainer.

After graduating from Ngee Ann Polytechnic with a Diploma in Mass Communication, she spoke to a family friend, who was an education counsellor at a polytechnic, about furthering her studies.

Based on his advice, she decided to apply for the three-year degree course at University at Buffalo, The State University of New York (UB), offered through SIM GE.

The decision was sealed when her boss at the advertising agency, where she was then working, also mentioned that he had heard good reviews of UB's Department of Communication.

Miss Lim was exempted from taking modules, such as Written Communication and Public Speaking. SIM-UB decides each student's curriculum based on the individual's polytechnic subject grades.

Now a second-year student, Miss Lim has only positive things to say about the programme.

Noting that the course in Singapore has shorter holidays and, as a result, is a year shorter than that for students in the US, she said: 'UB has taken an effort to truly consider the Singapore education climate... thus compressing an originally four-year course in the US into three years in Singapore.'

Miss Lim observed that lecturers do take a 'genuine interest' in students' progress.

She cited the annual Sociology Day, where students' final projects for the sociology module are exhibited in the school atrium, as an example. She said that the choice of a public venue for the event indicated that their lecturer wanted their voices to be heard.

Recalling how various SIM and UB lecturers as well as administrative staff turned up for the event, she said: 'The fact that all these people took time out from their busy schedules to come showed they care about us beyond our grades alone.'

'They also wrote encouraging and supportive comments on the pieces of paper we provided.' She is also hoping to participate in the study abroad programme.

Students with good grades can apply to spend a semester overseas at a university of their choice.