The Ministry of Education (MOE) announced in a press release on Sunday (Mar. 15) that, together with Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs), they have decided to suspend all official overseas placements, including all internships and exchange programmes, until end-July 2020.

This came after the multi-ministry taskforce on Covid-19 announced new travel restriction measures to reduce the number of imported cases into Singapore.

Students currently on overseas placements "will be recalled as soon as is practicable", said the statement.

Measures to prevent loss of credits

IHLs are taking measures to preempt students' concerns about the potential loss of credits that they would have earned during their exchange programmes or internship placements.

First of all, students' graduations will not be delayed. Instead, IHLs will provide alternative learning arrangements for affected students.

This includes taking "credit bearing modules" during the summer term, or local internship placements.

In addition, added MOE, since most of the affected students are second- or third-year students, they also have the option to take additional credits in subsequent years.

According to MOE, the respective IHLs will work with each affected student to finalise these alternative arrangements in the coming weeks.

Secondly, the alternative arrangements arising out of these new measures should not impose additional financial costs to students, said MOE.

Any additional modules or local internships will not add to the current school fees.

Affected institutions

According to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA), the IHLs in Singapore include the following:

Local universities

• National University of Singapore
• Nanyang Technological University
• Singapore Management University
• Singapore Institute of Technology
• Singapore University of Social Sciences
• Singapore University of Technology and Design

Polytechnics

• Nanyang Polytechnic
• Ngee Ann Polytechnic
• Republic Polytechnic
• Singapore Polytechnic
• Temasek Polytechnic

Offshore institutes with local campuses

• École Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales
• INSEAD (Singapore)
• SP Jain School of Global Management
• University of Chicago - Booth School of Business
• University of Nevada, Las Vegas - Singapore
• DigiPen Institute of Technology
• German Institute of Science and Technology -TUM Asia
• Sorbonne-Assas International Law School

Others

• Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore
• LASALLE College of The Arts
• Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

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Top image via NUS and MOE website.