Suspension of all official overseas student programmes and activities

In line with the advisory from The Ministry of Health on new border restriction measures announced by the Ministerial Taskforce on COVID-19, the Ministry of Education together with the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs), have decided to suspend all official overseas student programmes and activities. At SMU, these will include, but are not limited to, all internships, exchange programmes, community service projects, study missions, SMU-X overseas projects, and overseas postgraduate and PhD activities until end-July 2020. Students who are currently undertaking such overseas programmes and activities will be recalled as soon as practicable.

To address students’ concerns about the loss of credits earned during their exchanges or programmes, SMU is committed to supporting our affected students by providing alternative learning arrangements. This would include offering more courses relevant to our affected students during subsequent academic terms, as well as offering them local internship placements. As most of our affected students are second or third year students, they also have the option to take additional credits in subsequent years.

In the coming weeks, we will work with affected students to finalise these alternative arrangements. In addition, we will help affected students in their penultimate semester to graduate as planned. Our students’ safety and well-being are paramount and we will provide them with all the assistance and support possible in continuing their learning opportunities at SMU.