About 90% of Yale-NUS College’s fresh graduates employed in 2021

89.8 per cent of fresh graduates from Yale-NUS College’s (Yale-NUS) Class of 2021 in the labour force[1] were employed[2] within six months of completing their final examinations. The median gross monthly salary[3] of Yale-NUS graduates in full-time permanent employment in 2021 was S$4,150, up 2.8 per cent from 2020. This is based on the Joint Autonomous Universities Graduate Employment Survey 2021, which was conducted jointly by the National University of Singapore (NUS) and other Autonomous Universities (AUs) in Singapore.

According to the survey, the median gross starting salary of full-time permanently employed Yale-NUS graduates with Bachelor of Science with Honours degrees was S$4,500, while that for graduates with Bachelor of Arts with Honours degrees was S$4,000. For more details on the gross starting salaries of Yale-NUS graduates, please click here.

182 out of a total of 230 fresh graduates participated in the joint survey.

Yale-NUS graduates were employed in diverse industries, which include financial services, information & communication technology, the public sector, scientific/industrial research, consulting and education.

Professor Tan Tai Yong, President of Yale-NUS, said, “I am proud of how our graduates have pressed on in difficult times, proving themselves to be resilient and adaptable as they continue to make meaningful contributions in their respective fields – be it through their careers, graduate school work or start-ups they have created. I congratulate the Class of 2021 for their outstanding performance, and hope that they will make good use of the interdisciplinary learning and critical thinking skills they have honed during their time at Yale-NUS, to make an impact in the diverse fields they enter.”

A Yale-NUS education promotes broad-based interdisciplinary learning across the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities complemented by depth of expertise in one’s major. Students are led to draw connections between multiple fields, discover links across domains and connect these discoveries to topics and problems of contemporary society. By engaging with different academic disciplines, multiple traditions and ways of interacting with knowledge, this interdisciplinary learning enables students to develop critical thinking, cross-cutting competencies and the skills needed to address global issues. Besides academic learning, our full residential programme also provides an immersive living and learning experience for our community members who come from over 70 countries.

Winnie Tan, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Arts and Humanities, works as an Arts and General Reference librarian at the National Library Board, a statutory board under the Ministry of Communications and Information. In her role, Winnie focuses on the expansion and development of the reference library’s art collections, while developing research and reference materials in the areas of visual arts and business.

While at College, Winnie co-founded the Yale-NUS Fashion Society, where she collaborated with local industry experts and stakeholders. The College also supported her interest in art and fashion by enabling her to take part in various international experiences, such as a study abroad semester at Parsons Paris and a fashion technology fellowship in Berlin.

“I have gained invaluable tools from Yale-NUS’ liberal arts education. My diverse academic and pre-professional experiences at Yale-NUS have allowed me to see how different facets of art can intertwine with research, business, and innovation. Yale-NUS has equipped me with outstanding skills and a tenacity that I am able to apply in my career,” she said.

Among the fresh graduates who entered the private sector include Matthias Goh, who majored in Mathematical, Computational & Statistical Sciences (MCS). He is now an analyst in the Global Markets division at Citibank. Matthias’ passion in MCS was developed during his first two years at College when he took the Common Curriculum, an interdisciplinary set of courses that weaves common threads of inquiry and analysis. According to Matthias, he learnt to apply abstract concepts of logic through mathematical and scientific media which furthered his academic interest in crafting arguments and discovering flaws in arguments.

Beyond the academics, Matthias felt the co-curricular support at Yale-NUS has benefitted him greatly in his career. Through career workshops organised by the Centre for International & Professional Experience (CIPE), he explored and identified fields that fit his interest and later confirmed his interest for financial markets during a CIPE-coordinated internship.

Besides entering the workforce, some Yale-NUS graduates chose to go directly to graduate schools. The Class of 2021 include a Yenching Scholar at Peking University, a Ertegun Scholar at Oxford University, and others who have gone on to study at top universities around the world, including the National University of Singapore, Yale University, Stanford University, and more.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Maximilian Heidegger went on to pursue a Master in Management programme at INSEAD, one of the world’s largest and leading graduate business schools. Upon completing his Master programme this year, Maximillian will be joining multinational conglomerate Jardine Matheson in Hong Kong as an executive trainee.

Maximilian credited his time at Yale-NUS College for preparing him for graduate school “in every aspect that [he] can imagine”. For instance, Yale-NUS’ pedagogical model, which focuses heavily on seminar and discussion-based classes, is very similar to that of the business school. He said, “Internationally oriented business schools like INSEAD look for candidates who can thrive in multicultural and diverse academic and professional environments. Yale-NUS is one of the only colleges in the world that is able to offer such an experience early at the undergraduate level.”

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[1] Graduates in the labour force refer to graduates who are either employed (i.e. working) or unemployed (i.e. not working but actively looking and available for a job).

[2] Employment refers to graduates working on a full-time permanent, part-time, temporary employment or freelancing basis.

[3] Gross Monthly Salary comprises basic salary, fixed allowances, over-time pay, commissions and other regular cash payments, before deduction of the employee’s CPF contributions and personal income tax. Employer’s CPF contributions, bonuses, stock options, other lump sum payments and payments-in-kind are excluded.

For more information on our graduates, please visit https://www.yale-nus.edu.sg/profiles-of-class-of-2021-graduates/

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