To review course registration system in NTU

Brainstorming

Who?

Initiated by HSS Chinese students in Year 2, this notion does not only concern

Chinese students; in fact, it may have an impact on all NTU students.

What?

So what are we talking about here? Do we want to revamp the system?

Will this “revolution” even work?

No. We are not talking about revamping,

we only want to fix it.

When?

We want to hand this report to the Dean during the first week of Semester 2

(i.e. the week starting 1 August 2011)

How?

Good question.

There is no such thing as a perfect solution.

Read on if you are interested to know what we have in our heads.

(That’s why this is a brainstorm.)

Current course registration system

You got it? Good for you!

Didn’t get it? You can always appeal.Appeal fail. Try again next semester.

I barely got into my core module.

I only have 2 registered modules.Lucky! I only got 1!

Shut up! I got NOTHING!

Well, there is still the add drop period.

You will get it one day.

Current course registration system

Fastest fingers first

Tell me again why we need to fight for our core modules?

Er…Because you have to.

Otherwise, you can’t graduate.

2 hours of clicking non-stop, is this some kind of a game?

Juniors? Sorry man, you’ll be a Senior one day.

Main concern

Core modules should be assigned. Everyone should be guaranteed a

place in their core modules.

Since core modules are offered to us by our academic levels, they might as well assign us

core modules classes.

From the time they assign us our classes to the Add Drop period, we can find people who want to swap classes and do it during the Add Drop

period.

Course registration period will be for us to

register our UEs, GER-PEs and MPEs.

Then.. We fight, still.

See what they have done recently? They got us to let them know 3 MPEs that we cannot get.

They should have done this long ago. Let us rank our

choices before they decide to offer how many vacancies for

each module.

The good part about ranking? It is a gauge for them to know how many

classes to offer per module.

To minimize Demand > Supply

They offer more classes for more popular modules.

The bad part?

To go through our rankings…Let’s just say we will increase their workload.

Other concerns

65 modules listed here

Semester 1 2011/20124 modules offered to Year 1s

10 modules offered to Year 2s24 modules offered to the Year 3s and 4s

Do the math.

If we are doing a business with NTU, we are seriously at a disadvantage.

With the current system, when I couldn’t get the modules I wanted, I question:

“So, can I have a discount on my school fees?”

Everyone pays the same amount of school fees, I don’t see the reason why anyone should only take 1 to 3 modules that semester.

What is more, those are the modules you aren’t even interested in, those are the leftovers you barely got just so that you can graduate on time.

(For foreigners, mind you, you’re paying more.Scholars.. Good for you.)

We are looking at how course registration systems in Ngee Ann Polytechnic and

University of Melbourne work. (Tell you a secret: They are really more efficient.)

We are not proposing an entire change. Just refinements to the current system.

And we agree that Seniors need their priority. But with seniors always having to snatch courses with

the juniors, it is a vicious cycle that would not stop.

Our idea of an improved system1. Ranking

o Option 1: We rank up to 3 choices on the MPEs we want

o Option 2: We rank, then have the MPEs allocated to us based on our rankings

2. Core modules are assigned to us, ie. We will be getting classes beforehand

3. Course registration period is for us to register UEs, GER-PEs, MPEs.

4. Appeal & Add Drop period to swap classes and register for courses we could not get.

This may not be perfect.

Sure, there are more steps in this system, more work for the admin staff (they are paid to do it),

and it may seem more complicated. But this system can minimize the “fightings” between academic levels and the situation where people can end up with less than 4

modules for the semester.

Last but not least…

I know what you are worrying about.

I almost convinced myself into not doing anything too.

“I’m a year 3 student next semester, and I get all the priority I need, why should I even do

this?”

Well, every man for himself.

But these are the problems we see in this system and we believe we can have something in place that can

help our juniors.

If you are willing to help, feel free to voice out as we need all your inputs to make this happen. (:

Thank you.