28
February
2020
|
19:48
Asia/Singapore

Higher starting salaries and strong employment prospects for NUS graduates

  • Higher starting salaries1 for graduates from 23 courses
  • More than nine in 10 fresh graduates from Business, Computing, Design & Environment, Engineering, Nursing, Yale-NUS College employed within six months of completing their final exams

Graduates of the National University of Singapore (NUS) achieved strong employment rates and earned higher starting salaries in 2019, according to the Joint Autonomous Universities Graduate Employment Survey (JAUGES) 2019. 

The JAUGES 2019 was jointly conducted by NUS and the other Autonomous Universities.

2020-0228-graduation.jpg

NUS graduates earned higher starting salaries, while 9 in 10 fresh graduates secured employment within 6 months after final exams, according to the Joint Autonomous Universities Graduate Employment Survey 2019

Professor Ho Teck Hua, NUS Senior Deputy President and Provost, said, "We are proud of our graduates who continue to enjoy high employability and command competitive salaries, both in Singapore and globally. NUS’ multi-disciplinary training and our industry-relevant curriculum have prepared our graduates to be resilient and adaptable, with the capacity to take calculated risks. These are important traits to navigate the next-generation, digital workplace.” 

“To stay ahead and do well in this fast-changing world of disruptive innovation, our graduates must be prepared to reskill and upskill. NUS will continue to support our graduates in their learning journeys by introducing forward-thinking adult education courses to enable our graduates to make impactful and lasting contributions to Singapore and the society at large,” he added.

Nine in 10 NUS fresh graduates secured employment within 6 months after final exams; almost full employment for follow-up NUS graduates2

5,148 out of a total of 6,609 full-time fresh NUS graduates from the Class of 2019 and 650 out of 870 follow-up NUS graduates participated in the joint survey. Among NUS fresh graduates in the labour force, 90.9% were employed, compared to 90.0% last year. Another 2.8% of NUS fresh graduates in the labour force have either accepted a job offer pending commencement of duty or are actively starting a business venture. 

Fresh graduates from Dentistry and Business Analytics achieved full employment. More than nine in 10 fresh graduates from Business, Computing, Design & Environment, Engineering, Nursing and Yale-NUS in the labour force were employed within six months of completing their final exams.

Follow-up graduates from Architecture who completed their practical training as well as follow-up graduates from Pharmacy who completed their one-year pre-registration training, also achieved full employment. Medicine graduates who completed their housemanship or first-year residency training saw almost full employment.

Higher salaries for NUS graduates in full-time permanent employment

The survey also revealed that the mean gross monthly salary of fresh NUS graduates in full-time permanent employment was $3,939 in 2019, which is about 4.2% higher than $3,779 in 2018. 

The median gross monthly salary of fresh graduates from NUS in full-time permanent employment also increased to $3,600 in 2019, up from $3,500 in 2018.

Graduates from 23 courses in Arts and Social Sciences, Business, Computing, Business Analytics, Industrial Design, Project and Facilities Management, Real Estate, Engineering, Nursing, Music, Science, Pharmacy, Dental Surgery as well as those offered by Yale-NUS College, achieved improvement in starting salaries. 

Please refer to Annex 1 for the list of courses in which graduates have achieved higher starting salaries compared to 2018.

 

Footnotes:
1  Starting salary here refers to graduates’ median gross monthly salary.
2  Follow-up graduates refer to those from the Architecture Class of 2016, who took part in the survey upon completion of their practical training, and graduates from Law, Medicine, and Pharmacy courses, who took part in the survey after completing their one-year practical law course, pupilage or housemanship/first-year residency/pre-registration training upon completion of their studies in 2018.