DigiPen (Singapore) inaugurated the Polytechnic Special Articulation (PSA) program, taking in the first batch of such students from Singapore Polytechnic’s School of Digital Media and Infocomm Technology (DMIT) in September 2014.
The PSA program allows selected Polytechnic students to study and earn credits at DigiPen (Singapore) (while still at the polytechnics). When these students eventually matriculate at DigiPen (Singapore), the credits earned during the PSA program will be recognized towards fulfillment of their coursework.
This is extremely beneficial to the Polytechnic students who join DigiPen (Singapore) after their national service. The transferred credits can reduce their workload during the first year of their study and help them adjust to student life better.
In this pilot program, six Diploma of Information Technology students from the Singapore Polytechnic (SP) were selected to experience a semester at DigiPen (Singapore), reading the foundational first-year modules offered by DigiPen (Singapore).
Zhou Zhihua, one of the students, said, “This program let me have the chance to learn higher level and deeper [concepts]. It made me start to really think of how things work. Instead of just simply using programs, I start to think of how they work — the algorithms they use.”
While the students felt the challenges of adapting to university-level classes, they appreciated how they now were able to understand the principles better.
Franklin Lim, another program participant, said, “The teaching style of the lecturers are definitely different from those in polytechnic, but I find that I am still able to adapt to it quite well.”
Academic lessons aside, the experience the students gained from their interactions with the lecturers and other undergraduates in DigiPen (Singapore) was also something that they cherished.
“I made some friends with the other students who studied there,” Franklin said. “It provided great insight as I managed to talk to others with more experiences than me.”
The Polytechnic Special Articulation program is available to all Polytechnics in Singapore. Going forward, DigiPen (Singapore) looks forward to welcoming more students to this program from the different Polytechnics.