Even when the SSS students are still in their first year, the school has already tied up with the Auckland University of Technology to provide a 2-year sports science diploma course for its trainees besides the A levels. Please read on the following report from The Straits Times:


AUG 24, 2004
SPORTS SCHOOL
Another route for further studies, sports
SINGAPORE Sports School students may soon have another avenue to pursue post-secondary studies and sports.

A memorandum of understanding signed between the school and the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) yesterday included the possibility of the school offering a two-year AUT sports science diploma.

Said Sports School principal Moo Soon Chong: 'We wanted to offer our students alternatives besides the A levels.

'The AUT programme will equip them with a diploma and also give them the option of furthering their studies in Auckland.'

The AUT is the second institution to tie up with the school, but the first to offer a diploma course.

In April, then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said that the Ministry of Education had agreed to let Sports School students into the next-door junior college at Woodlands, which will be ready next year.

The new junior college's curriculum and time-table will be flexible enough to accommodate both intensive sports training and good preparation for the A levels.

The AUT's deputy vice-chancellor, Professor Philip Sallis, who signed the MOU with Ministry of Community Development and Sports Permanent Secretary Lim Soo Hoon, said: 'We already have links with the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University, but were attracted to the Sports School because its philosophy of balancing sports excellence and education resonates with us.'

The AUT has a close relationship with the Millenium Institute of Sports and Health in Auckland, where student-athletes can gain hands-on experience while pursuing a sports science degree and train in a top-class facility.

The option of pursuing a degree course will be possible for the Sports School's students in 2009, after the current Secondary 2 students complete their O levels in 2006 and the two-year diploma course.

The AUT and the Sports School will also have regular exchanges of sports science staff, while AUT students will get work attachment opportunities at the Sports School. \-- Marc Lim

Here's another piece of good news for both parents and students of our only sports school.

In today's Straits Times, the following report was filed by Chan Yi Shen:

"A deal signed yesterday will make the Singapore Sports School a one-stop learning centre providing secondary through to university education.

This will allow the school's students to focus on sports without niggling worries in the background about academic achievements - or the lack of them.

The school has inked a landmark agreement with the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC) to offer an in-house university degree programme.

Under the deal, UWIC will admit sports school students into its Sports and Leisure undergraduate programme upon their completion of the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) diploma in Exercise Science and Sports Management.

Both qualifications can be sought through the school, which already provides secondary education.

An agreement signed last year with AUT allows the school's students direct admission to the sports diploma course without having to sit for GCE O levels.

The entry requirement is a minimum of five passes in the sports school's final-year exams.

School principal Moo Soon Chong hailed the UWIC tie-up as a milestone for sports in Singapore.

"With this tie-up, students can continue training without having to worry about their O levels and the subsequent options," he said.

The first intake for the two-year degree programme is likely to be in 2009, when the firt batch of sports school students under the AUT diploma are expected to graduate.

UWIC is eyeing the East Asia School of Business as a possible partner in its sports and leisure programmes at the sports school."

This will only make the SSS more attractive to mainly the parents who are obsessed with paper qualifications and a good future for their children. One could therefore expect greater interest shown at the next intake. There might now be even a mad rush for the limited places! Certainly a glorious day for Singapore Sports! Just hope both the UWIC and AUT qualifications are of good quality and internationally recognized, at least in the Commonwealth countries, and the demand for such graduates is good. :D :D :D

Is that AUT as in Auckland, NZ (really??) Good for diplomas, not so sure about full degrees... University of Auckland would be better...

At the very least we can entice players to stay in New Zealand and play for us :) Stealing away the competition lol

The Straits Times
February 24, 2009

By Jane Ng

The Singapore Sports School has turned out its first batch of diploma graduates.

Twenty students from the original batch of 38 who joined the school between 2003 and 2005 received their diplomas in sports management and exercise science from the Auckland University of Technology (AUT).

The ttwo-year couse, part of a through-train programme, was offered by a private school, the East Asia Institute of Management (EASB). Students on the programme skip the O levels.

Lessons are conducted in the morning or evening at the Sports School campus in Woodlands, leaving the afternoons free for the athletes to train.

Students on the AUT programme also found it easier to take part in regular overseas competitions, as lecturers can schedule make-up lessons for later.

Among the athletes who received their diplomas last week was 2008 Sportsgirl of the Year, bowler Jazreel Tan.

The 19-year-old, who transferred to the Sports School in Secondary 3 in 2005, said that besides the flexibility that the programme offered, she also found a module on coaching useful.

"I've always been told one of my weaknesses is not being able to tell my coach what I'm thinking. After the module, I learnt to communicte better with my coach, and it has helped my training,' she said.

She hopes to get either a sports management degree at Wichita State University in the United States, which has a strong bowling programme, or a sports science and management degree at the Nanyang Technological University.

Classmate and national sprinter Calvin Kan, 18, who took part in his first Olympics in Beijing last August, said he especially enjoyed the management modules in the diploma.

"They would be useful it I wan to pursue a sports-related careeer eventually," said Calvin, who hopes to study sports science at Brunel University in Britain.

The other students from the Sports School's pioneer batch are either still pursuing their diplomas - either at AUT or polytechnics in Singapore - or are awaiting their A-level results.