Students of NUS-Business School: The COVID-19 pandemic has created much tumult; there will surely be more in the next semester. It is an opportune time for us to renew our commitment to you, our students. Speaking as one, the faculty and staff of the school reaffirm our pledge to provide you with the best education possible. We are raising the bar for instruction, and have unanimously voted to raise teaching standards. We will enforce these transparently, by making Student Feedback Scores available to our entire community. The faculty expect you to be accountable in your coursework; now, we also expect you to hold us accountable as instructors. We urge you to take this feedback seriously in the future; we will. In 2020S1, all coursework will be available online. Some of our students cannot get into Singapore; some students in Singapore will be unable to attend classes in person. We’ve been working hard to enhance the quality of our online instruction, and we welcome your support and suggestions. In 2020S1, all courses will also be taught face to face to the maximum extent possible. Again, the school’s faculty and staff are in complete agreement that we must take full advantage of this opportunity. We have social distancing constraints; no more than 50 students can attend a class face to face. This will affect many classes and students. Students in some classes will only be allowed to attend in person on a rotating basis. Teaching may be at odd times: we will be teaching from 8:00am through 10:00 pm Monday through Friday, as well as Saturdays and Sundays. Teaching may also be in odd spaces; we’ll be using all our classrooms, even old and windowless ones. We need to do this to take full advantage of our limited space. But even so, not everyone will be able to go to attend class in person; we simply don’t have the capacity. So, there will be priorities: first, to our new students, who have never been to NUS before; and second to our graduating students, who will be leaving NUS soon. We ask for your understanding while we spread our load in an unprecedented way. But we ask you to maintain high expectations for our teaching; symmetrically, we expect you to work hard in learning. The next semester will be a new experience for us all; it will not be straightforward, and we expect more turbulence. But it is important to count our blessings. Most importantly, we will teach face to face, a vow that many of our competitors cannot or will not make. This will require a considerable effort by the entire community. The staff and faculty have already made their commitment; we are confident that you will. We expect our students to play a key part going forward, by working hard on their studies, and especially by staying – and helping others to stay – healthy and safe.[1] We did not choose these constraints, and it is to pointless to complain about them; instead, we plan to be constructive and do our best. We welcome constructive suggestions for improvement. The pandemic was beyond our control, but our response is not. Let us pledge, together, to have a fruitful semester of teaching and learning under extraordinary conditions. We will get through this. Together. The Staff and Faculty of NUS-Business School, June 2020 Online vs Face to Face Instruction at NUS-Business: What’s Best? July 2, 2020 For the majority of our students, we think the choice between being taught face to face (hereafter “F2F”) or purely online in 2020S1 is easy; almost everyone should receive as much F2F instruction as possible. Fear is not a good reason to go purely online. The National University of Singapore, and the Singaporean Ministries of Education and Health have all decided to permit F2F teaching under certain conditions (which we will enforce rigorously). They are better informed than our students (or our students’ families … or indeed the entire NUS-Business faculty), and are responsible risk-averse institutions. Accordingly, we will follow their lead, and we think our students and staff should too. We think F2F provides a superior teaching experience than purely online, consistent with a strong global consensus. F2F also permits better social interaction and networking, key reasons to attend NUS-Business; you not only learn more, but it’s more fun. So, we discourage our students from choosing to attend classes only online if they can be taught face to face; they are likely to have an inferior experience. But we certainly do not prohibit a purely online experience. Some students may not be able to attend classes F2F because they cannot get into Singapore. Some may not wish to go to Singapore from abroad because of fear of travel, domestic circumstances, or whatever. Even those inside Singapore may not be able to or wish to attend in person (for instance, if they live with particularly vulnerable people). So NUS-Business will certainly not force anyone to attend classes F2F.[2] While we encourage students to take full advantage of the F2F teaching we provide, it is up to the individual to choose what she/he thinks best. While the choice is up to the student, it is consequential; we urge each of our students to think hard. One final note. Even though purely online delivery is more expensive for NUS to deliver, students will not be charged extra for being taught purely online. NUS Business School [1] All members of the NUS community must: wear masks; engage in social distancing; stick to their zone; only come to campus when permitted; regularly make health declarations and do temperature-taking; wear NUS ID on lanyard; and use SafeEntry, uNivUS, and TraceTogether. Everyone should wash hands regularly and, importantly, seek immediate medical attention and do not come to campus if ill. We expect our students to adhere to these rules; we, the faculty and staff, will. [2] Indeed, because of safety constraints, we cannot deliver F2F to all our students, though we make a commitment to deliver F2F to the maximal extend possible.
