Sport Achievements An Edge For Discretionary Admission To Local Autonomous Universities

Student-athletes who wish to extend their academic pathway after graduating from Singapore Sports School’s post-secondary programmes have a fair chance of entering universities here, thanks to Sports School’s discretionary admission policy.

Sports School established the policy to recommend high-performing student-athletes.

The Sports School has built linkages with local universities – Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore University of Technology and Design and Yale-NUS College – and continues to deepen ties with these tertiary institutes so as to make it a smooth process to recommend student-athletes to them.

Upon discretionary admission into these universities, student-athletes are expected to continue pursuing their sport at a collegiate level. This is part of Sports School’s long-term goal to provide an all-inclusive sport and academic support for its student-athletes.

Wushu exponent Jowen Lim Si Wei entered the Sports School midway during his diploma studies at Republic Polytechnic. The Diploma in Sports and Leisure Management (DSLM) student transferred from the main campus to take up the same programme offered at Sports School to maintain a balanced academic-sporting lifestyle.

Jowen was grateful to his Sports School mentors, who had heart-to-heart discussions with him to help him figure out what he wanted to pursue in university. He also credited the modules he took during his DSLM programme which comprised finance, marketing and sport science and exposed him to different fields of work, allowing him to decide his future.

“Initially I was not confident of landing an interview with the university and school of my choice. However, my Sports School mentors encouraged me to apply through the Discretionary Admission and I managed to get an interview with SMU. I will be studying Business Management in SMU next August,” said Jowen.

Jowen has participated in three editions of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games (2015, 2017 and 2019) and won 3 golds and 1 silver for Singapore. He has also participated in the Jakarta-Palembang 2018 Asian Games where he came in 4th among his regional counterparts. At the 15th World Wushu Championship in Shanghai in 2018, Jowen won bronze medals in both the Daoshu and Gunshu events.

Miya Yong Hsing, one-half of Singapore’s top artistic swimming duo, credits Sports School for her discretionary admission recommendation, allowing her to secure an interview for the course of her choice – Psychology at the Singapore Management University.

“There were career counselling sessions which I found really helpful in selecting the university courses. I also had one-on-one talks with my mentor, and just being able to go through the options helped me to decide my interest in psychology. Doing the International Baccalaureate programme also gave me a better understanding of what courses I wanted to pursue in university.”

Miya started artistic swimming as a school CCA when she was in Primary 2. After completing secondary school, she decided to join Sports School for its IBDP which provided the support she needed to continue training at the national level, and cope with the academic demands. Miya contributed to a team gold at the 2015 SEA Games, together with Sports School alumna Debbie Soh Li Fei, and the duo won a gold for the duet technical routine in the 2017 SEA Games. Miya also took home 2 bronzes for her solo free routine and solo technical events.

“The Sports School IB programme provided the support I needed to continue training at a national level, coupled with teaching support so that I was able to cope with academic demands. I was able to maximise my time by cutting down on travelling time as I stayed at Boarding,” explained Miya.

“Joining Sports School was a simple decision for me as I knew the school was designed to support athletes like myself. The teachers and mentors were very helpful and caring towards my journey in sport and academics. Sports School made me feel very included and appreciated even though I was only there for a short while,” recalled Jowen.