9 in 10 Yale-NUS graduates find employment within six months

Fresh graduates from Yale-NUS College’s second cohort continue to be highly sought-after in the marketplace. The overall employment rate[1] of fresh graduates from Yale-NUS College for 2018 was 90.4 percent, based on the latest Joint Graduate Employment Survey 2018[2], which was conducted by the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the other Autonomous Universities (AUs) in Singapore.

Professor Tan Tai Yong, President of Yale-NUS College, said, “We are pleased that our graduates continue to be highly sought-after in the workplace. For a young college with only two graduate cohorts, we are very encouraged by the confidence displayed by employers. The Class of 2018 has demonstrated their spirit of adventure and tenacity, taking on a curriculum that was designed to challenge and equip them with skills to meet the needs of today’s competitive marketplace. In their time with us, we have sought to nurture in them an open and outward-looking perspective of the world, intellectual rigour, curiosity and perseverance through our immersive experience of living and learning in the residential colleges. I hope our graduates will put what they learnt in Yale-NUS to good use for them and those around them, no matter what fields they go into.”

The median gross starting salary of this cohort was S$3,700, which was 5.7 percent higher than S$3,500 in 2017. For more details on the gross starting salaries for Yale-NUS students graduating with Bachelor of Arts with Honours or Bachelor of Science with Honours degrees, please click here [3].

131 out of a total of 150 fresh graduates participated in the joint survey, including inaugural graduates from the Double Degree Programme in Law and Liberal Arts.

Yale-NUS College offers a distinctive curriculum and a four-year residential programme that encourages active learning, adaptability and critical thought. The curriculum emphasises broad-based multidisciplinary learning across the natural and social sciences, and humanities. A key part of the Yale-NUS education is ensuring that students have a wide range of experiences and a global portfolio of opportunities. Such opportunities enhance their academic learning, broaden their perspectives, and hone the skills and character they need to succeed as students today and leaders tomorrow. One of Yale-NUS College’s distinct qualities is its diverse yet close-knit residential community where all students live and study on campus throughout their four years of education at the College.

Mr Aaron Ong, who graduated with a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Mathematical, Computational and Statistical Sciences (MCS), is now working in Facebook, Inc.’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, USA, as a software engineer. In his role, he applies his technical knowledge and analytical skills to develop software products and collaborates with both technical and non-technically trained colleagues. Mr Ong said, “Software engineering is increasingly a people-oriented role. I am tasked to create products that people want to use, and write code that other engineers can understand. These tasks require empathy to accomplish, and my liberal arts education at Yale-NUS College was a great way to develop that.”

Another graduate who has put his college experience to good use in the workplace is Mr Dynn Othman, who started working at Infinite Studios as a film and television producer after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Arts and Humanities. At Infinite Studios, he manages the company’s creative assets, collaborating closely with writers, directors and actors to produce high-quality content for theatrical release and for programming on subscription-based video-on-demand platforms. Mr Dynn’s love for filmmaking began during his time in Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s School of Film Studies, and he carried this passion over to Yale-NUS, by jumpstarting the school’s filmmaking culture during his time as President of Yale-NUS Filmmakers Society.

A graduate who has gone on to contribute in Singapore’s public sector is Mr Damian Lee, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Psychology. Mr Lee is now an associate at the Economic Development Board of Singapore (EDB) and his role involves crafting industry development strategies for Singapore in the area of mobility. This includes dealing with trends in autonomous and electric vehicles, and on-demand transportation services. Mr Lee is grateful for his education at Yale-NUS, which has helped him communicate effectively at work and enabled him to develop a more inquisitive mind.

Besides graduates who have entered the workplace, other Yale-NUS graduates have also gone on to different pathways such as fellowships and graduate schools. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) in May 2018, Ms Sarah Novak worked in the Centre for Public Impact (CPI) in Sydney, Australia, for a few months before starting her Master in Environmental Change and Management at the University of Oxford in September 2018. Ms Novak felt the solid base she received from her PPE major and Environmental Studies minor at Yale-NUS has prepared her well for the course. “I will always be grateful to Yale-NUS for giving me such an outstanding and unique toolkit of knowledge, skills, and experiences which continues to prove incredibly useful in all walks of life,” said Ms Novak.

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[1] The overall employment rate refers to the number of graduates working on a full-time permanent, part-time, temporary or freelance basis, as a proportion of graduates in the labour force (i.e. those who are working and those who are not working but actively looking and available for work) as at 1 November 2018.

[2] The Joint Graduate Employment Survey is conducted by the six Autonomous Universities (NTU, NUS, SIT, SMU, SUSS and SUTD) every year to collect information on the employment status of graduates around six months after the completion of their final examinations. Due to their different academic calendars, NUS, NTU, SMU and SUSS conduct their surveys in November each year, while SUTD and SIT conduct their surveys in February and March respectively.

[3] To view Yale-NUS data, please go to Tab 6 of table.

For more information on our graduates, please visit https://www.yale-nus.edu.sg/profiles-of-class-of-2018-graduates/

For media enquiries, please contact publicaffairs@yale-nus.edu.sg