Last October, I was invited to the NTU Board of Trustees’ work retreat in Bintan. This was the first time student leaders were invited to such a meeting. In the spirit of preparation, I decided to do some research about the Board.

I found out its members are “long-term stewards of the university” and they make up the highest body in the university. Which made me wonder: what do they do? Shouldn’t I then direct all my feedback (and student complaints) to the Board?

Well, it seems the Board sets the broad strategic directions of the university, while the President, Prof Bertil Andersson, and his team deal with the day-to-day running of the university. Their relationship is much like that between a company’s management team and its board of directors made up of eminent individuals from the private and government sector.

At the retreat, I attended focus group discussions about the emotional well-being of students, listened to the Provost, Prof Freddy Boey, debate with a member of the Board on exam policies, and sang some karaoke as I joined the Board members in winding down after a long day of meetings.

I particularly enjoyed the discussion on exam policies. Ever notice how NTU students are very concerned with their Grade Point Average? I’ve often wondered whether that numerical score is an accurate reflection of ability. Does the student who studies the most truly learn the most? If I score a second-class lower honours, for example, am I considered less intelligent than most of my peers?

Some of us may feel that a typical examination resembles that of a production line, where students rush frantically to finish their papers as invigilators watch out for any abnormal behaviour. Papers are given out on time and collected systematically. To remind us about the consequences of cheating, there is always that audio announcement played at the start of an examination. There seems to be something dehumanising about playing this audio every time, they suggested. And one can almost imagine this as a dystopic image (I did).

One of the Board members, Prof Haresh Shah of Stanford University, had some interesting ideas. He raised the possibility of letting students take some of their exams at home. He shared that top universities, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, assess their students using online tests. At Stanford University, he has set exam questions requiring answers that cannot be found in textbooks. This is done to test the students’ conceptual understanding of the subjects, and not on how well they have prepared themselves using past years’ exam papers. So far, the Singapore education system seems to reward a studying system where practising with past years’ exam questions is a trusted way to excel in exams. Therefore, some students may be uncomfortable at the thought of facing an exam where such practice may not help much.

Some of us already take open-book exams in NTU. But sitting for exams at home is a new concept for most of us. It’ll be interesting to see how students respond to such a policy if it becomes a reality some day.

Comments? Email us at hey@ntu.edu.sg