SIX years after His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam highlighted the need to prepare ‘a curriculum aimed at establishing a culture of life-long education to ensure it is capable of producing a knowledgeable Bruneian community of all ages’ in his 2003 Teacher’s Day Titah, UBD announced it will be offering a university bridging programme called UniBridge from January 2010.

The programme is designed for prospective students to gain entry to undergraduate degrees at UBD, which incorporates a principal objective of widening accessibility to higher education and encouraging life-long learning.

This means that UBD has now opened a window of opportunity for students to attain a degree even if they previously did not meet the university entry requirements. It does, however, comes with terms and conditions.
The announcement was made yesterday by Dr Azman bin Ahmad, the Assistant Vice Chancellor (Education and Internationalisation) of UBD, during a press conference.

The UniBridge programme will provide a clear route to UBD’s undergraduate degrees and a specially-designed course related to the academic field intended to be studied at undergraduate level.

It will also provide a range of study and communication skills to enable students to succeed in studies while improving their overall English proficiency and ability to use academic English appropriately and effectively at undergraduate level. The programme will also introduce students to a university educational system and its academic culture.

UBD said that for those who complete and pass the programme, they will be given an offer to UBD’s GenNEXT degrees in Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Business, Bachelor of Health Science or Bachelor of Science, depending on the modules taken.

For in-service candidates, their entry to UniBridge and the degree programmes will be subject to approval and requirements of their respective offices and the Public Service Department.

UniBridge will also be open to international students.

To be considered for UniBridge admission, applicants must meet certain requirements and criteria which include two GCE A-Level passes of minimum grade D, or 120 points; or LB score of 24 points; or one GCE A-Level pass with at least three years of full-time work experience; or four GCE 0-Level credits with at least five years of full-time work experience; and a credit in GCE 0-Level English or its equivalent, IELTS 6.0 or TOEFL 550; and passing an entrance test set by UBD.

However, fulfilling the requirements would not guarantee entry into UBD’s UniBridge programme, as admission will be competitive and limited and is also subject to the availability of spaces, Dr Azman said.

UniBridge requires students to take a minimum of four modules which carry four modular credits each, meaning a total minimum of 16 modular credits. It is comprised of three core modules arid at least one optional module.

The core modules are Introduction to University Study, Developing the Skills of Academic Literacy, and Developing the Skills of Academic Numeracy and IT.

Students are also to take at least one of the optional modules according to their chosen degree programme, but are encouraged to take up more than one module to broaden their academic choices.

The optional modules are Business and Management for University Study, Health Sciences for University Study, Arts and Humanities for University Study, and Science for University Study

In a press release, UBD said that the programme is one of the policy directions in the education strategy towards achieving the Brunei Vision 2035 of an educated, highly skilled and accomplished people.

The initiative is also in line with the Ministry of Education’s mission to provide holistic education to achieve the fullest potential for all, as laid out in its Strategic Plan 2007-2011. UBD’s Strategic Plan 2006-2015 also reiterates a critical performance objective of promoting lifelong learning and opportunities for mature students under its undergraduate teaching and learning strategic theme.

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