According to the Graduate Employment Survey (GES) 2017, graduates from both National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) enjoy good employment prospects and higher salaries as compared to the results from the previous year.
The overall employment rate for fresh graduates from NUS was close to 90 percent, which is comparable to last year.
Fresh graduates from Dentistry and Accountancy (Honours), as well as Medicine graduates who completed their housemanship/first year residential training, achieved full employment. Pharmacy graduates who completed their one-year pre-registration training saw almost full employment. More than nine in ten fresh graduates from Business, Computing, Nursing and Yale-NUS were employed within six months of completing their final exams.
The survey also revealed that the mean gross monthly salary of fresh NUS graduates in full-time permanent employment was S$3,659 in 2017, which is 3.7 percent higher than the S$3,527 in 2016.
The median gross monthly salary of fresh graduates from NUS in full-time permanent employment was S$3,500 in 2017, which is 2.9 percent higher than the S$3,400 in 2016.
Professor Ho Teck Hua, NUS Senior Deputy President and Provost, said, "We are pleased that NUS graduates continue to enjoy high employability and competitive salaries. In fact, the starting salaries of fresh graduates from NUS have been increasing steadily since 2014. We are heartened to know that our graduates have benefited from the robust and transformative education offered by NUS, and are doing well in the job market. We will continue to enhance our curriculum offerings and work closely with industry partners to meet Singapore’s evolving talent needs.”
Meanwhile, graduates from NTU's class of 2017 earned higher salaries, with a mean gross monthly salary of S$3,487 for fresh graduates in full-time permanent employment. This is an improvement of 1.8 percent from S$3,424 in 2016.
Close to 9 in 10 NTU graduates also reported that they found a job within six months after completing their final examinations (see footnote 1), which was comparable to last year.
Besides the National Institute of Education (NIE) graduates who achieved 100 percent overall employment rate, other courses with the highest overall employment rates include Business & Computer Science (100 percent), Civil Engineering (98.5 percent), Accountancy & Business (97.2 percent), Accountancy (97.1 percent), and Computer Engineering (95.1 percent).
“We continue to see good demand for our graduates locally and globally, and this year’s graduates are entering a strong job market. Employers value our graduates' ability to be effective in the workforce from day one. The industry-relevant training, real-world skills and experiences picked up during their internships, international exposure and exchanges, voluntary work and other enterprising activities give our graduates an edge in the global talent market," said NTU Professor Tan Ooi Kiang, NTU's Associate Provost (Undergraduate Education).
The survey is jointly conducted by NTU, NUS, Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), Singapore Management University (SMU) and Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUTD) annually to survey the employment conditions of graduates about six months after their final examinations.