Curriculum Overview

Earn Units during your time at NOC

General

The NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) internship programme offers selected NUS undergraduate or post graduate students a unique opportunity in entrepreneurship education at more than twenty different locations: Silicon Valley, New York and Chicago in the United States, Toronto-Waterloo in Canada, Santiago in South America, Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing and The Greater Bay Area (Guangzhou & Shenzhen) in China, Stockholm in Sweden, Munich in Germany, Israel, Paris in France, London in England, Norway, Nagoya in Japan, Singapore and Southeast Asia (Indonesia - Bandung, Jakarta & Yogyakarta; Thailand - Bangkok; Vietnam - Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City, The Philippines - Manila and Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur).

Students selected for the programme will do internship at innovative start-ups in the world’s leading entrepreneurial hubs. At the same time, they will be taking classes at reputable and prestigious universities, namely Stanford University, University of Toronto, Fudan University, Peking University, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), Chulalongkorn University, Technical University of Munich, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Reichman University, Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) University and others.

Students who need to check with their own faculties regarding Courses mapping may click here to access the list of faculty facilitators.

NOC Curriculum Structure

The NOC programme is designed to be academically neutral, which means a participating student can possibly earn equivalent number of Units for a semester, as per a non-NOC student. There are 3 durations of the NOC programme: 12-month (2 regular NUS semesters, awarding up to 42 units), 6-month (1 regular NUS semester, awarding up to 22 units (except for NOC Singapore before AY2024/25 Semester 1 intake that awards up to 26 units), 3-month (NUS special term 1&2, awarding up to 6 units).

Broadly, the NOC programme consists of 3 parts:

  1. Internship Courses: up to 32 Units (depending on the duration of the NOC programme)
  2. Entrepreneurship Courses: Up to 8 Units (depending on college)
  3. ETP2271 Discovering Resilience and Purpose course: 2 Units (for NOC 6-month and 12-month programme only)

Download a copy of suggested / sample academic roadmap for planning or for reference. Students typically join NOC programme in their 5th &/or 6th or 6th &/or 7th semester. Refer to the respective tabs for the individual college curriculum.

A carefully thought-out roadmap serves to provide students with succinct clarity on how their NOC participation can be built into their remaining candidature in NUS. The roadmap will be highly useful in helping students to assess the need for an extension of candidature. All selected NOC students are required to spend at least one regular semester in NUS upon their return from the programme.

College of Design and Engineering (CDE) / School of Computing (SoC)
College of Design and Engineering (CDE) / School of Computing (SoC) students who are undertaking NOC internships (from NOC AY2014/15 Sem 2 intake and onwards) that are relevant to their discipline or major; involving intensive work (e.g. technical design, research, development, experimentation, etc) as well as analysing the viability of the product, idea or service, may apply and seek approval from your faculty and / or department to collectively use NOC internship courses [i.e year-long: TR3201N/ETP3203L (8 Units), TR3202N / ETP3201L (12 Units) or ETP3206L (16 Units) & TR3203N/E/P / ETP3202L/E/P (8 Units)- up to 32 Units or short: TR3204S/T / ETP3204S (4 Units) and TR3202S/T / ETP3201S (12 Units – 16 Units] to fulfil the degree major requirements. Students are to check with their faculty/ department for updated mapping approval. Click here for the list of CDE/SoC Courses can that be fulfilled under this.

NUS Business School
NUS Business School students should refer to this page for information on mapping of NOC Courses to Business requirements before applying to NOC.

Fulfilling Undergraduate Degree Requirements with NOC Credits

For students admitted from AY2015/16 and onwards, courses taken under the NOC programme can be used to fulfil either Programme or Unrestricted Elective (UE) requirements. However, any proposed mapping or substitution of any NUS course with another course (taken under the programme) will have to be submitted to the respective faculty or department for consideration and approval.

Table A: For NOC AY2019/20 Sem 2 Intake onwards

Semester NOC Components Units (Max) Programme Requirements (Faculty / Major) Unrestricted Elective Courses (UEC)
5th & 6th
or
6th & 7th
TR3201N Entrepreneurship Practicum / ETP3203L Innovation & Enterprise Internship Practicum (8 units) or TR3204S/T Entrepreneurship Practicum / ETP3204S Innovation & Enterprise Internship Practicum (4 units) 4/8 4/8 #(4/8)
TR3202N/S/T Start-up Internship Programme / ETP3201L/S Innovation & Enterprise Internship (12 units) or ETP3206L Innovation & Enterprise Internship (16 units)* 12/16 12/16 #(12/16)
TR3203N/T/P/E Start-up Case Study and Analysis / ETP3202E/L/P/S Innovation & Enterprise Case Study & Analysis 8 8 #(8)
ETP2271 Discovering Resilience and Purpose course 2 2
Entrepreneurship Courses ^8 8

Note:

  • #For students who are unable to count the three internship courses (TR3201N / ETP3203L, TR3202N/S/T / ETP3201L/S and TR3203N/T/P/E / ETP3202E/L/P/S) towards programme requirements, they will be counted towards their UE courses requirements.
  • ^The maximum units for Entrepreneurship Courses were 12 from AY2019/20 Semester 2 to AY2022/23 Semester 2 intake.
  • *ETP3206L Innovation & Enterprise Internship (16 units) is for students under the 12-mth Programme from NOC AY2024/25 intake onwards.
  • Specific mapping or substitution of any NUS course with another course (taken under NOC) is to be submitted to the respective faculty, school or department for consideration and approval.

Preclusions:
Students who have taken a specific TR/BSN/BSP Course at BIZ prior to joining the NOC program may be precluded from taking the equivalent course under the NOC programme. As part of the NOC requirements however, students are required to take (at least) one entrepreneurship courses (refer to individual college curriculum for details on compulsory Courses). If students have taken any of the compulsory TR/ETP Course under NOC requirements, do check back with NOC for the latest preclusions requirements.

Table B: Preclusions for Entrepreneurship Courses under NOC

BIZ Course TAKEN
Course Code/Title
PRECLUSIONS UNDER NOC
Course Code/Title
NOC Course code / title Partnering University Course Code / Title
TR2201 Entrepreneurial Marketing NUS TR3003 / ETP3251 MS&E271 Global Entrepreneurial Marketing (NOC Silicon Valley)
NUS TR2201 MS&E271 Global Entrepreneurial Marketing (NOC Silicon Valley)
MANA130006 营销管理 Marketing Management (NOC Shanghai)
MANA110056 市场营销导论 Marketing Introduction (NOC Shanghai)
TR3001 New Product Development NUS TR3001 MANA130058 New Products Development and Management 新产品开发管理 (NOC Shanghai)

Internship Outcome
Only students who have secured an internship placement may prepare to leave for NOC programme upon approval of the required visa/residence permit. Students who have secured an internship but do not leave for the overseas locations before NUS semester commences are to register for and attend regular classes until such time they are issued with a visa/residence permit and depart for the programme. Students will need to arrange to drop the courses once their departure date is confirmed.

Engineering Scholars Programme (E-Scholar) 
E-Scholars will be enrolled in one of the 6-month NUS Overseas College Programmes (NOC). NOC programme is designed to provide international industry exposure to students. For more information, please refer to FAQ and here.

Enrolment in NUS courses outside of NOC curriculum list
Students on NOC programme are not allowed to enrol in NUS courses which are not part of the NOC curriculum regardless of whether physical attendance is required or not.

Curriculum Details by college

NOC Beijing
NOC Chicago-Urbana-Champaign
NOC Chongqing
NOC Greater Bay Area (Guangzhou)
NOC Greater Bay Area (Shenzhen)
NOC Indonesia
NOC Japan
NOC London
NOC Malaysia
NOC Munich
NOC New York
NOC Norway
NOC Paris
NOC Philippines
NOC Santiago
NOC Shanghai
NOC Silicon Valley
NOC Singapore and Singapore (Discoverer)
NOC Stockholm
NOC Thailand
NOC Toronto-Waterloo
NOC Vietnam