CNA-More women taking up engineering courses at Ngee Ann Polytechnic

["TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Channel NewsAsia

Monday, January 10 10:05 PM SGT

More women taking up engineering courses at Ngee Ann Polytechnic

More women are taking up engineering courses in Ngee Ann Polytechnic, and some have even beaten their male counterparts to emerge top in their class.

Last year, the enrolment of female engineering students in Ngee Ann Polytechnic hit a record high of 23 percent.

Electrical engineering students, 20-year-old Yang Xuan and 22-year-old Win Nu Nu Win are just two of them making up this increase.

Both foreign students, they had not only excelled among the ladies, they even outshone the guys to become top students in this largely male dominated field.

Win Nu, who is from Myanmar, scored 6 distinctions and 1A in her last semester examinations.

She attributed her success to her sense of curiosity.

Said Win Nu:
"When I was young , whenever I see all the electrical appliances just as TV, video and computers, I want to know how they work and how they develop."

Another electrical student Yang Xuan, from China, also had a perfect score of 6 distinctions in the last 2 semesters.

Speaking of her success, Yang Xuan has this to say:
"It's much harder for me to understand the theorem compared with the male students so I need to extra hours to study...Maybe someone spent one hour for the tutorial, I will spent 3 to 5 hours."

Just as hardworking is Singaporean Tan Cai Yun, one of the top female students in Mechanical Engineering.

She was one of 18 female students awarded the Motorola Awards for outstanding academic results.

Said Tan:

"I've to work hard for it sometimes I even have to think like a guy how they think, how they are going to solve those problems."

According to Ngee Ann, courses like shipbuilding and offshore engineering have also seen the female enrolment go up to one third of the cohort last year.

While other polytechnics, like Singapore Polytechnic, have not seen a similar increase in female students over the last 5 years.