Scorecard Gap Semester 2.0
Rafflesian Times
32
Gap Semester 2013 : What ’ s Up
Briefings for Gap Semester 2013 got underway at the end of last year , with students of the new batch ready to experience a remodelled and refreshed learning process . Things got underway with introductory briefings to the whole concept of a ‘ Gap Semester ’ and the registration for Self-Initiated Courses ( SICs ) in Term 3 last year .
The Year 3s we spoke to reported greatly welcomed the continuation of the self-initiated courses , which empowers keen and interested students to scout out attachment opportunities matching their specific interests . Judging from the overwhelming response , a large number of Rafflesians were enthusiastic about pursuing their interests in their own creative and meaningful ways .
Unsurprisingly , research programmes and attachment to mentors from the National University of Singapore rank dominate the SICs that have been initiated ; coming in a close second are community-oriented SICs .
Such sentiment also stems from the fact that many younger students , after attending the Gap Semester Congress last year , learnt about the fun ( and notso-fun ) discoveries and experiences that their seniors had undergone in their journeys . From Bryan Chua ’ s ( 14A01A ) self-initiated course on golf , to the sharing of the service-learning trip to Bhutan (‘ an eye-opener ’), last year ’ s Year 3s were adequately persuaded that no interest was too wild to pursue , or too time-demanding to aspire towards .
Furthermore , there were some changes made to the administrative process that sought to make the process of allocating Rafflesians to their Gap Semester courses more transparent . The most obvious change to the selection process was the introduction of interviews for all international and work attachment courses , instead of conducting a ballot for a majority of the courses on offer . This has made matters clearer and fairer , especially since most felt that the luck of the draw should not be the determining factor in choosing the most suitable candidates for a course .
However , it would seem that some courses are widely preferred than others . We found out , for instance , that ‘ Fire . Batik . Paradise ’, a course in which students would have visited two vastly different locations in West Java — Surabaya and Bali , was so undersubscribed it had to be cancelled . In comparison , ‘ Sweden : 13-day Environmental Sustainability Programme ’ was oversubscribed by a factor of four . This is inevitable , but it begs the question of whether Rafflesians are picking courses on the basis of interest , or if they are being unduly influenced by the location of particular courses , deeming some countries more interesting than others .
The Gap Semester is certainly a milestone in the evolution of the Raffles Programme . Prior to the Year 4 batch of 2012 going through the firstever Gap Semester , there has never been any such programme officially incorporated into academic curriculum across the country , let alone this institution . Many of the current Year 4 students are clearly looking forward to Gap Semester 2013 — we hope that they have taken into account the feedback received from the previous batch and wish them a most enjoyable , enriching time !