The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) is one of the largest faculties in the National University of Singapore

National University of Singapore

The National University of Singapore is Singapore's oldest university. It is the largest university in the country in terms of student enrollment and curriculum offered....

 (NUS).

Overview

It is made up of three main divisions, Asian Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences. Within the Asian Studies division, the following subjects are offered: Southeast Asian studies

Southeast Asian studies

Southeast Asian Studies refers to research and education on the language, culture, and history of the different states and ethnic groups of Southeast Asia.-Publication:Southeast Asian Studies is also the English name of the Japanese scholarly journal...

, Chinese studies, Chinese language

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

, South Asian studies, Japanese studies and Malay studies. The Humanities division offers the following subjects: History

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

, English language

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, English literature

English literature

English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

, Theatre studies

Theatre studies

Theatre studies is the study of theatrical performance in relation to its literary, physical, psycho-biological, sociological, and historical contexts. It is an interdisciplinary field which also encompasses the study of theatrical aesthetics and semiotics...

 and Philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

. Within the Social Sciences division, the following subjects are offered: Communications and New Media, Economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

, Geography

Geography

Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...

, Political science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

, Psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

, Social work

Social work

Social Work is a professional and academic discipline that seeks to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of an individual, group, or community by intervening through research, policy, community organizing, direct practice, and teaching on behalf of those afflicted with poverty or any real or...

 and Sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

.
The faculty offers both 3-year Bachelor degree and 4-year Honours degree programmes. Post-graduate degrees are also offered, as well as ample research posts. Students are expected, at the end of their 3 or 4-year degree, to acquire not only depth in their field of specialisation, but also breadth in the other fields. Therefore, all students are expected to take up modules from all the three departments. The faculty also provides a special shared-major programme, which allows students to specialise in two subjects, without the heavy workload of a double-degree programme. This allows for development of students' interest in different fields.

The Centre for Language Studies

The Centre for Language Studies (CLS) is part of FASS. The centre currently offers twelve languages for students. They are: Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Chinese (Mandarin), French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Tamil, Thai and Vietnamese. Students who are interested in these languages and who have a prior knowledge of the language should sit for a placement test to ensure their enrolment into a class of appropriate level. Beginner (Level 1000) classes are offered for students who have no knowledge of the language. Upon enrolment into language programmes, students have the opportunity of partaking in overseas immersion programmes to further help them develop fluency and competence in the language. The Language Preparatory Programme (LPP) is hosted by the CLS for students who are preparing to go on student exchange to French-speaking or German-speaking countries. These students are admitted into the respective language programmes in their first year of study, and are given priority for language classes. Ideally, after two semesters of study, these students will go for a 3-week immersion programme to the respectively countries, and then after another two semesters of study, they will go for a semester-long (or 2 semesters for students on the Honours track) Student Exchange Programme (SEP) at a partner university.

FASS Modular System - A Rough Guide

It is common for freshmen (as well as students in all other years of study) to be perplexed by the modular system in NUS. Following is a rough guide to help all in answering some doubts (note: this only applies to single-major students from FASS):

• Number of exposure-level modules (level 1000 modules with a module code of XX1101E, where XX is the subject, for example, EL1101E for English Language exposure modules): 4, at least one each from the 3 departments, excluding the exposure module for your own major.
• Number of Unrestricted Electives (UEs): 7, all of which are outside of your own major (they can be cross-faculty modules).
• Number of Major modules (for a single-major student): 14 (56 credits), including the exposure module of your major.

These constitute the Faculty and Major requirements. Students are also expected to fulfil the University requirements below:

• Number of General Education Modules (GEM) : 2, 1 with a code of GEK/GEMX5XX, and one with code of GEK/GEMX0XX (where X can be any number). If a module has a code of GEK/MX9XX, it can be used to replace either of the above two modules.
• Number of Breadth (cross-faculty) modules : 2
• Number of Singapore Studies (SS) modules : 1

These apply to a Single-major 3-year Bachelor student. The average number of modules taken each semester is 5 (20 credits). For a 4-year Honours student, he is expected to complete a total of 4 Breadth modules, as well as an increased number of Major modules.