Eligibility & Application

Outgoing Exchange
Eligibility & Application

Eligibility

Student Programme Category	Application Period for Exchange	Period of Exchange
LLB	Year 2 Semester one	Year 3 Semester one, Semester two or Full year
Law-USP / Law-NUSC	Year 2 Semester one	Year 3 Semester one or Semester two only*
Law-MPP	Year 2 Semester one	Year 3 Semester one only
DDP Students	Year 3 (To apply with partner faculty)	Year 4 Semester one or Semester two only (to participate in exchange under partner faculty)**
3-year JD	Year 2 Semester one	Year 3 Semester two only (See Part E below)

*Notes for NUSC Students:
1. NUSC students may only accept 1 SEP offer, either from NUS Law or NUSC. The following arrangements applies to the application cycle for SEP AY2025/26:
  1. NUSC students who have submitted an application for NUSC SEP Round 1 can apply for Law SEP concurrently.
  2. NUSC students who accept an offer from NUSC SEP Round 1 will have their Law SEP application voided.
  3. NUSC students with a Law SEP application must not apply for NUSC SEP in Round 2.
2. NUSC students who wish to take part in full-year Law SEP must withdraw from NUSC. They should indicate their willingness to withdraw from NUSC if allocated full-year SEP in their application through EduRec.
**Notes for DDP students:
DDP students who wish to take part in Law SEP must indicate their willingness to withdraw from the DDP programme if allocated Law SEP in their application through EduRec.

A. Grade Requirement

Students should meet a minimum B average grade for exchange placement. A small number of partner universities (PU) may accept students who fall slightly below this grade; these PUs are indicated in the EduRec.

Students are expected to maintain these minimum grades after accepting the SEP offer from NUS Law.

Some PU may indicate a minimum GPA on their website/factsheet as a part of admission requirements. While GPA is not applicable for law students, minimum GPA may be used as an indicative standard for acceptance into the PU for exchange.

B. IELTS/TOEFL Requirement

C. Chinese Language and Course Requirements for PU in China

To opt for Partner Universities (PU) in China, students must fulfill one of the following prerequisites:

minimum Grade B in H1 or H2 Chinese at GCE 'A' level; or
minimum Grade 4 in SL Chinese for the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma; or
minimum Grade B4 in Higher Chinese at GCE 'O' level.

A digital copy of the relevant certificate must be submitted along with your application on EduRec.

If selected for an exchange with PU in China, students will be required to read LL4009V Modern Chinese Law & Legal Chinese course in Semester 1. (Note: The exchange period for all PUs in China is Semester 2.)

D. Current Scholarship Holders

E. Important Note for JD Students

The Student Exchange Programme is open to all 3-yr JD students. There are, however, potential implications since JD students may only go on SEP in their graduating semester (Year 3 Semester 2), after completing your compulsory courses. JD students must consider the following carefully before embarking on SEP.

i) Implication on Graduation and Academic Prizes

Partner universities (PU) have varying semester start/end date which affects when your results from your exchange semester is released. You should expect a risk that you may not graduate in time with your cohort in June/July.

To be in time for June degree conferment and to attend the Commencement ceremony in July, your SEP results from PU must be available to NUS by early to mid-May.

If you miss the June degree conferment, the next degree conferment would be at the end of August. To qualify for the August degree conferment, your SEP results must be available to NUS no later than first week of July. In this situation, however, you will only be eligible to attend the Commencement ceremony in the following year and you will not be considered for Academic Prizes.

ii) Implication on Enrolment for Part B at SILE

Students must have graduated with the JD in order to be eligible for the Part B course. In view of possible late degree conferment, NUS Law will try to work with SILE to allow JD students on SEP to apply and enrol for Part B provisionally, subject to SILE receiving certification from NUS by July that students have passed the JD. NUS Law may help by requesting PU to send us early notification of your results as soon as they are available, ahead of the issuance of official transcript. This will place NUS in a position to issue this certification within the deadline (which SILE has stressed is a strict deadline). However, students should note that SILE is not obliged to agree nor is PU obliged to provide early notification of your results. These arrangements may allow students to enrol for Part B in their graduation year.

In addition, JD students should note that there is a chance that even with the above arrangements, the information from the PU may not be received in time for NUS to meet SILE's 'end of July' deadline. In that event, students may have to withdraw from SILE, forfeit some fees and enroll for Part B the following year. (Starting from 2025, Part B will have a January intake.) The risk may be small but it does exist.

As such, JD students who wish to go on SEP are strongly advised to select PUs whose semester and exams end early (by early April for June conferment, or no later than mid-May for August conferment). This timeline is on the assumption that PUs takes about a month or so to process results from end of semester. It is the responsibility of students to do their own research for information on PUs you are interested in and consider the implications set out above before putting down your PU choices in the SEP application. By accepting an SEP place (if allocated), it is deemed that you accept the risk and implications as mentioned above.

Application through EduRec

All SEP applications must be made though EduRec. Students must complete the Travel Preparedness Course by GRO at least 24 hours before they can submit your SEP application.

The application cycle for SEP AY25/26 opens from Friday, 25 October 2024 and closes on Monday, 9 December 2024, 2359hrs. Late submissions will not be entertained.

A. Considerations Before Applying

You should do the necessary research about your shortlisted PUs before including them in your submission. Some factors to consider should include (but not limited to):

Affordability
- living expenses, flight and accommodation costs, student visa/insurance fees etc.
Course offering at PU
Period of Exchange

You are generally not allowed to go on overseas exchange with host institutions in your country of citizenship or permanent residency (e.g. if you hold citizenship in country A, you may not be able to go on exchange to PUs in country A).

B. Guide to submission via EduRec

To submit your SEP application, go to Login > Self-Service > Global Education > External Study Application > "Faculty of Law SEP “AY202X/202X”.

Please use your NUSNET ID (i.e.‘xxx’ portion of xxx@u.nus.edu) as the USER ID and NUSNET password as PASSWORD. The guide for student programme application can be found HERE.

You can choose up to a maximum of 10 partner universities. Please rank your choices in order of preference carefully.
Exchange periods can be semester 1, semester 2 or full-year. Some PUs are available for a specific semester (e.g. Sem 1 only) others are full-year places. If you indicate wrongly, the choice is considered void.
Where PU is available for exchange for either semesters:
- if you have a strict preference, indicate the specific semester;
- if you can accept placement any semester, indicate your preference but indicate under “additional information” box - ‘Uni A - any sem’. This will allow us to place you in the semester with vacancy should your preferred semester be filled.

Note: Due to limited available places and the need to roughly balance outgoing and incoming student numbers in each semester, you may not be allocated a slot should there be an overwhelming preference for a particular semester. Thus, if you are willing to go on exchange in either semester, you are strongly advised to do so and indicate it clearly in your application

If you have included any China PU in your choices, you must upload a valid certificate/transcript containing your Chinese Language results (as stated Part C above) during application via myEduRec. Students with missing documents will not be considered.

Interview and Personal Statement

Some students may be invited to attend an interview in mid-January as part of the selection process. Applicants should check their NUS email account on a regular basis during this period.

Students attending the interviews may be asked to write a Personal Statement of not more than 600 words explaining, inter alia, 1) Why you would like to go on exchange 2) Why you chose a particular school or region and 3) Why you should be selected. You may also be asked to indicate an academic referee.

Selection, Offer and Acceptance

The selection criteria will primarily be based on academic merit, with a minimum requirement of a B average grade. Students who do not meet this grade may be considered for selected PUs that may accept students who fall slightly below this criteria. Students, if invited for interviews, will have their performance during the interview taken into account.

Offers for SEP places will be made around end-January to early-February, following which students must Accept/Reject within a strict duration of 3 days. Requests for extensions to consider offers will not be entertained. Students are expected to have considered all factors, including financial means and budget, when selecting their choices in the application."

Withdrawal from the exchange after acceptance is STRONGLY discouraged. All withdrawal requests will be reviewed individually, considering any extenuating circumstances. A penalty fee of $500 will be imposed on withdrawals made without valid reasons.

Application to Partner University

Students who have accepted the offer from the Faculty will be nominated to the partner university (PU) according to the hosting partner's timeline. Information, such as PU's application procedures and timelines, will be provided in due course. For an overview of the administrative processes applicable for all SEP students, please see our page on Exchange Procedures for Outgoing Students.

Students are expected to read the necessary information and requirements of the PU, including any requirements for IETLS/TOEFL, and ensure that relevant arrangements are made to fulfill requirements. Academic reference letters may be required by PU and students are advised to waive your right of access to the recommendation letter.

Please note that acceptance into the exchange program by the host is subject to the decision of the PU. Consequently, students are required to maintain their academic grades and good standing during the semesters prior to the exchange period and throughout the application process.

Other Information

You may wish to visit the NUS GRO website for more information on how to prepare for exchange and the latest news.

Outgoing Exchange