NUS graduates remain competitive
NUS graduates continue to see a stable and high employment rate and better starting salaries in 2016. The results from the latest Joint Graduate Employment Survey 2016 showed that close to nine in 10 NUS fresh graduates secured a job within six months after their final exams in 2016. The median gross monthly salary of NUS fresh graduates in full-time permanent employment also rose 3 per cent, from $3,300 in 2015 to $3,400 in 2016.
NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost, Professor Tan Eng Chye is heartened that NUS graduates continue to enjoy high employability and competitive salaries despite a tight employment market.
“The world economy is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable, and employers today value experience over a degree. At NUS, we aim to empower our students with more than just strong technical skills. The unique NUS education places a strong emphasis on global exposure, experiential learning as well as the acquisition of critical soft skills that are relevant to the workplace of the future. We will continue to enhance our curriculum offerings and strengthen the NUS educational experience to nurture high calibre graduates who are future-ready,” Prof Tan said.
The survey revealed that NUS graduates from 15 courses in Arts and Social Sciences, Business, Industrial Design, Real Estate, Engineering, Music, Science, Environmental Studies, Pharmacy and Law saw an improvement in their overall employment rate in 2016 when compared to 2015. NUS graduates from Law and Medicine saw almost full employment rate after completing their pupilage, housemanship, or first year residential training, while Dentistry graduates had a 100 per cent overall employment rate.
Starting salaries went up for NUS graduates in 16 courses in Arts, Business, Computing, Dentistry, Real Estate, Engineering, Nursing, Applied Science, Law, Medicine and Pharmacy. In particular, graduates from NUS Computing’s Computer Science and Information Systems programmes, as well as those from NUS Electrical Engineering, had the highest increase in starting salaries.
Rey Neo, who graduated from NUS Computer Science in 2016, is one of many NUS graduates seeing positive prospects in the job market. A Software Engineer at PayPal, he credits his internship experience for landing him the coveted role. “I had interned at PayPal in 2015, which I had found through the School's internship portal. It was a great learning experience, and it led to them offering me a job – an opportunity that I gladly took up,” said Rey.
The survey was jointly conducted by NUS and the four other Autonomous Universities. More than 5,000 full-time fresh NUS graduates from the Class of 2016 and 551 follow-up NUS graduates participated in the survey in November 2016.
