Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
Undergraduate Education
Degrees Offered
Principles
The Faculty subscribes to the following two principles with respect to undergraduate education:
1) Depth and breadth
Good undergraduate education involves a balanced combination of depth and breadth. By the end of a degree programme, graduates should know one area well, that is, be aware of its main ideas, of the possibilities and limitations of its methodology, and of its current questions and problems. The best graduates will also be able to devise problems and pose questions of their own in this area. But to be properly educated, graduates should also have broad exposure to other kinds of knowledge beyond their specialism.
2) Responsibility
As mature learners, undergraduates should be given the responsibility of determining much of their own programme of study: for instance, the area of specialisation, and the scope and nature of their study outside that area. In short, there should be both flexibility and choice.
Degrees Offered
The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences offers programmes on a full-time basis, leading to the degree of:
- Bachelor of Arts [BA]
- Bachelor of Arts with Honours [BA (Hons)]
- Bachelor of Social Sciences with Honours [BSocSci (Hons)]
- BA (Hons) or BSocSci (Hons) degree – USP students
Curriculum Structure & Degree Requirements
The graduation requirements presented in this section are extracted from the Modular System for Cohort 2020, which contains other important information for FASS students. Students are strongly advised to print a copy of the Modular System for Cohort 2020 for their reference, available at:
https://fass.nus.edu.sg/academic-matters/modular-system/
All important announcements will be placed at the FASS website: https://fass.nus.edu.sg or https://myportal.nus.edu.sg/studentportal/fas/ug/. It is, therefore, the responsibility of students to check the Faculty website and their NUS mailboxes regularly for updates. Students are also responsible for ensuring that they are contactable via their NUS mailboxes.
To graduate with a BA (Hons) or BSocSci (Hons) degree, FASS students must have declared honours track* and accumulated a minimum of 160 Modular Credits (MCs) and achieved a Cumulative Average Point (CAP) of at least 3.20. Students who choose not to or do not complete the honours requirements may graduate with a BA degree, after accumulating a minimum of 120 MCs at a CAP of at least 2.00.
The requirements for graduation are:
- General Education Requirements
- Students will be required to read one General Education Module (GEM) from each of the five pillars. More information can be found at: http://www.nus.edu.sg/registrar/academic-information-policies/undergraduate-students/general-education.
- It is compulsory for FASS students to take GET1050 to fulfil the Thinking and Expression pillar.
- FASS students who are in USP or completing the UTown requirements will still need to read GET1050 and count it towards their Unrestricted Elective instead.
- Programme Requirements which include:
- Faculty Core Requirements
- Major Requirements
- Unrestricted Elective Modules
Details of the relative weightage and MCs required for graduation are presented in the following sections.
* Note: To declare an honours track, students must have completed at least 110 MCs including 44 MCs of major requirements AND have a minimum CAP of 3.20.
English for Academic Purposes (EAP)
All candidates offered admission to the Faculty must be exempted from or be required to take the qualifying English Test (QET). Students who pass the QET will be exempted from taking the EAP course. Students who do not pass the QET will be required to take the EAP course which consists of two consecutive modules, ES1000 Basic English course and ES1102 English for Academic Purposes. These two modules are additional essential modules for students who do not pass the QET. Students with poorer English proficiency will read ES1000 first. On passing ES1000, they will proceed to read ES1102. Students with better English proficiency will proceed directly to read ES1102. A pass in ES1102 is essential for graduation.
A full description of the modules is available at the CELC website: http://www.nus.edu.sg/celc/
To graduate with a BA (Hons) or BSocSci (Hons) degree, FASS students must have:
- Fulfilled the requirements specified in Table 1 and obtained the minimum MCs required for the relevant degree.
- Obtained a minimum CAP of 3.00 for the award of an Honours degree. (Refer to Table 2)
- Completed the BA (Hons)/BSocSci (Hons) degree within a maximum of ten semesters, unless otherwise approved
Table 1: Graduation Requirements for FASS BA (Hons) or BSocSci (Hons) degree with Single Major
| REQUIREMENTS | MCs | % |
| General Education | ||
| (1) General Education modules | 20 | 12.5 |
| Programme | ||
| (2) Faculty Core modules | 20 | 12.5 |
| i) Exposure modules | 12 | |
| ii) Writing, Expression and Communication (WEC) modules | ||
|
4 | |
|
2 | |
|
2 | |
| (3) Single Major* | 84 | 52.5 |
| Unrestricted Electives | ||
| (4) Unrestricted elective modules (a minimum of 28 MCs must be outside student’s major, remaining 8 MCs can be within or outside the major) |
36 | 22.5 |
| Total | 160 | 100 |
* Students must earn the stipulated minimum number of MCs from level-3000 and level-4000 modules of their major. The Faculty requires students to earn a minimum of 20 MCs from level-3000 modules and a minimum of 40 MCs from level-4000 modules or higher in their major. However, for both levels, some majors may stipulate a higher number for their minimum. Students may be allowed, in lieu of their level-4000 modules, a maximum of two level-5000 modules (subject to the department’s approval and module pre-requisites, if any,) to fulfil graduation requirements. Students should take note that level-5000 FASS modules offered to undergraduates will be worth 5 MCs each. The level-5000 module codes for undergraduates will have the suffix ‘R’ (for example: EC5555R). Some departments as a matter of policy do not allow undergraduates to read their graduate modules. Level-5000 Independent Studies Modules (ISMs) or level-6000 modules (including ISMs) will not be open to undergraduates. Please refer to the requirements specified by the department/programme for each subject.
Table 2: Award for Honours
| CLASSIFICATION | CAP (BASED ON ALL MODULES READ) |
| Honours (Highest Distinction) | 4.50 & above, plus pass* the Honours Thesis (HT) |
| Honours (Distinction) | 4.00 – 4.49 |
| Honours (Merit) | 3.50 – 3.99 |
| Honours | 3.00 – 3.49 |
| Pass (B.A.) | 2.00 – 2.99 |
FASS students who do not complete the honours requirements will graduate with a BA degree after they have:
- Fulfilled the requirements specified in Table 3 and obtained the minimum MCs required for the relevant degree.
- Obtained a minimum CAP of 2.00, which is equivalent to an overall ‘C’ grade.
- Completed the BA degree within eight semesters, unless otherwise approved by the University. The minimum period for the BA degree is four semesters.
Table 1: Graduation Requirements for FASS BA degree
| REQUIREMENTS | MCs | % |
| General Education | ||
| (1) General Education modules | 20 | 16.7 |
| Programme | ||
| (2) Faculty Core modules | 20 | 16.7 |
| i) Exposure modules | 12 | |
| ii) Writing, Expression and Communication (WEC) modules | ||
|
4 | |
| Ø FAS1103 Effective Workplace Communication | 2 | |
|
2 | |
| (3) Single Major* | 44 | 36.7 |
| Unrestricted Electives | ||
| (1) Unrestricted elective modules (a minimum of 28 MCs must be outside student’s major, remaining 8 MCs can be within or outside the major) |
36 | 30.0 |
| Total | 120 | 100 |
* For the single major (B.A.), the Faculty requires students to earn a minimum of 20 MCs from Level-3000 modules. However, some majors may require students to earn more than this minimum. Please refer to the requirements specified by the relevant Department/ Programme for each subject.
To graduate with a BA (Hons) or BSocSci (Hons) degree, USP students must have:
- Fulfilled the requirements specified below and obtained a minimum of 160 MCs.
- Obtained a minimum CAP of 3.00 for the award of an Honours degree. Additionally, USP students are required to attain a minimum CAP of 3.50 to fulfil USP requirements.
- Completed the BA (Hons) or BSocSci (Hons) degree within a maximum of ten semesters, unless otherwise approved by the University.
| REQUIREMENTS | MCs |
| (1) USP Requirements | 40-48* |
| Programme | |
| (2) Faculty Core modules | 12 |
| i) Exposure modules | 12 |
| (3) Single Major***
(not including the Major’s Exposure module which is counted in Faculty Core or Unrestricted Electives) |
84**** |
| Unrestricted Electives | |
| (4) Unrestricted elective modules | 20-12* |
| i) GER1000 | 4 |
| ii) GET1050 | 4 |
| iii) Modules read outside the major | 8-0* |
| iv) Modules read within or outside the major | 8 |
| Total | 160 |
* The number of MCs read here would depend on the number of USP ISMs read under the major requirements. A student is required to read at least one, but no more than two USP ISMs. If a student reads a USP ISM towards his/her major requirements, the number of MCs required under (1) would decrease. The student would then need to read modules under Unrestricted Electives to meet 160 total MCs for graduation. The table below summarises the possible permutations for 2 USP ISMs.
** USP students are exempt from FAS1101, which is the other WEC module.
*** Students must earn the stipulated minimum number of MCs from level-3000 and level-4000 modules of their major. The Faculty requires students to earn a minimum of 20 MCs from level-3000 modules and a minimum of 40 MCs from level-4000 modules or higher in their major. However, for both levels, some majors may stipulate a higher number for their minimum. Students may be allowed, in lieu of their level-4000 modules, a maximum of two level-5000 modules (subject to the department’s approval and module pre-requisites, if any,) to fulfil graduation requirements. Students should take note that level-5000 FASS modules offered to undergraduates will be worth 5 MCs each. The level-5000 module codes for undergraduates will have the suffix ‘R’ (for example: EC5555R). Some departments as a matter of policy do not allow undergraduates to read their graduate modules. Level-5000 Independent Studies Modules (ISMs) or level-6000 modules (including ISMs) will not be open to undergraduates. Please refer to the requirements specified by the department/programme for each subject.
**** The minimum MCs requirement for a major at honours level is 84 MCs (some majors may require more) and the minimum MCs requirement for UE modules read outside the major is 4 MCs (GER1000).
- Regular programmes leading to a BA degree or BA (Hons):
-
- Chinese Language
- Chinese Studies:
- Communications and New Media
- Economics
- English Language
- English Literature
- Geography
- Global Studies
- History
- Japanese Studies
- Malay Studies
- Philosophy
- Political Science
- Psychology
- Social Work
- Sociology
- South Asian Studies
- Southeast Asian Studies
- Theatre Studies
- Philosophy, Political Science, and Economics (PPE) Programme