NUS and NTU Expand Programs and Lower Admission Thresholds National University of Singapore (NUS)

NUS recently announced the latest figures for the number of graduate students enrolled. The number of graduate students increased from 11,714 in the 2022-2023 academic year to 13,072 in 2023-2024, reflecting a growth rate of 11.5%, surpassing that of Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

The expanded programs are mainly in Economics, Finance, Business Analytics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering, which are popular and high-demand fields.

Admission Requirements:

Application Requirements: In the past, NUS primarily considered applicants from 985 and 211 universities or top-ranked non-985/211 universities in the Shanghai Ranking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities. However, in the 2024 Fall admission cases, there were also successful admissions of students from ordinary non-985/211 universities.

Additionally, NUS has lowered language proficiency requirements. For example, the Master’s program in Economics now accepts an TOEFL score of 85 or IELTS score of 6.0, a significant reduction compared to previous years.

Nanyang Technological University (NTU)

According to data released on NTU’s official website, the number of graduate students in the 2022-2023 academic year was 9,777, which increased to 10,608 in the 2023-2024 academic year, marking a growth rate of 8.5%. Among the various schools, the College of Engineering, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Nanyang Business School, and College of Science all saw enrollment increases ranging from 18% to 58%. The largest expansion occurred in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering faculty, where the number of places nearly doubled.

Admission Requirements:

Historically, NTU required a TOEFL score of 100 or an IELTS score of 6.5 for most graduate programs. However, some programs have now lowered their language requirements. For example, the Electrical and Electronic Engineering program has lowered the TOEFL requirement from 100 to 85, and the Media and Communication program now accepts an IELTS score of 6.0 (down from 7.0), with no restrictions on individual section scores.

Both NUS and NTU are actively expanding their graduate programs and lowering admission thresholds, making it easier for a wider range of students to apply, particularly in high-demand fields like engineering, business, and computer science.