My draft letter to DEan's Office, Vice Dean for undergraduate program
Dear Prof Ashraf
Good day to you sir. I am a graduating student, from the department of chemical engineering (ChEE), enrolled in AY02/03. I took up the minor in bioengineering program in AY03/04, semester 2, and I would like to request for your assistance.
I was informed by the division of bioengineering that i did not fulfil the requirement for the minor degree recently. It came as a shock to me as i had planned my schedule precisely and correctly and had followed the requirements as found in the bioengineering minor website ( here). I was told that i need to do a minimum of 24MCs to get my minor, which had never been indicated on the bioengineering website for my batch. For those enrolled in AY04/05 onwards, this requirement was then stated ( here).
The following are my questions to them:
1. Dubious requirements listed on website
Firstly, why wasn't the 24MCs requirement indicated in the bioengineering minor website? Students like me will have to refer to it every now and then to check our progress, as well as to plan our modules schedules. The minimum they could have done is to indicate that we also have to refer to engineering general rules for minor, where they claimed there was a general rule of 24MCs for minor for our batch.
Secondly, in the requirement they have provided for our batch (here ), it was clearly indicated at the bottom:
"NB: As far as the student workload is concerned, the extra workload is from the 4 additional Multidisciplinary Modules as stated in (a) above. The other 2 Engineering Elective Modules stated in (c) above are NOT extra workload. They are part of the electives which the engineering undergraduates will have to take."
I have done the 4 additional multidisciplinary modules of "extra workload" and my 2 related chemical engineering electives, which gives a total of 22MCs. If, the requirement, as claimed, is 24MCs, then i would have to do an extra workload of a 5th Multidisciplinary Module or another elective. In either case this contradicts the requirements they have stated in italics above, where the extra workload is only from the 4 additional Multidisciplinary Modules.
If there is no contradiction, it would have meant that the bioengineering division have put incorrect information on their website.
2. Lack of accountability to students taking the minor module
I have a fellow ChEE classmate who also did the minor program. He only knew about this requirement this semester. He had taken the compulsory module BN1901 this semester and during the classes, he had learned from his Electrical Engineering (EE) counterparts that there is such a requirement. The EE students themselves only knew about this problem a semester ago. My fellow ChEE classmate then had to ask for special permission to take another module at the 3rd week of school so that he can fulfill the minor, as this is our last semester of study.
I also knew of another minor student who did not know of this rule. The division of bioengineering also acknowledge that the EE students had this problem and the division had helped them "solved" this. Assume there are at least 2 EE students involved, there are at least 4 students who had gone before me to seek help from the bioengineering division. Doesn't this quantify a significant number of minor students who did not know about the 24MCs requirement? So why is it that the division did not inform us at all or clarify with all its minor students on this issue?
3. Incorrect illustration
The division of bioengineering insisted that there is a general ruling of 24MCs for minor degree listed on the general rules for minor at the engineering website. This does not account for the fact why there was a contradiction in its requirement, or their lack of accountability. Worst of all, from 2002 all the way till 13 Jul 2005 (we were accepted into the program in Jan 2004), the web page which showed the general rules ( here) gives an illustration on how a ChEE student can obtain the bioengineering minor for those matriculated in AY02/03 onwards. If Prof sir has noticed, it adds up only to 22MCs, which is exactly the route that i had followed, and which was the requirement put up on the bioengineering minor webpage all along. No satisfactory answer on why this supposedly 'incorrect' illustration was up there but they did concede that they 'might have assumed that the chemical engineering electives are 4 MCs each'.
I inferred that the problems had occured due to the university transition to a modular system, and the shift in minor requirements for my batch onwards. Thus the fact that ChEE electives are 3 MCs each was overlooked by the division of bioengineering. As such, there exist the contradictory requirements as well as the incorrect illustration. The purpose of this email is not to point finger at anyone. Certainly the people who had put up the wrong illustration might not be around anymore. But I would like to highlight to Prof sir that i had been wrongfully denied a minor degree in my graduating semester due to others' assumptions and lack of accountability, and contradictory rules in the requirements. At the end of the day, i hope my years of careful planning and hard work in taking the extra modules would not have gone to waste, and that i can graduate with my deserved minor.
For your necessary actions please, sir.
Cordially
Shwei Lin
