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Tag: NUS

  • NUS Economics Graduate Chooses To Sell Crabs For A Living

    NUS Economics Graduate Chooses To Sell Crabs For A Living

    Meet Fu Hai everyone, who I met this morning during my market visit. Fu Hai, 29, runs a stall selling fresh crabs at the Toa Payoh Market at Lorong 4.

    His stall is simple – just a few styrofoam boxes with live crabs in them. His work day is long, starting at 4am and ending at night around 8pm. He and his parents have three such stalls.

    Fu Hai graduated with an economics degree from NUS but decided to forge his own path. He has big dreams. He knows the network of crab suppliers from Sri Lanka, Indonesia and China. He knows what his customers want – which crabs are best for their sweet meat, and others for the roe.

    He thinks he can expand this business to semi-finished products working with our polytechnics.

    Welcome to Singapore’s Future Economy. Whatever shape that comes in, we will need young people like Fu Hai to forge new paths.

    The future belongs to people like him. Let’s all wish Fu Hai every success as he chases his dreams.

     

    Source: Ng Eng Hen

  • Under-Employed NUS Sociology Graduate Earns $1200 As Part-Time Accounts Executive

    Under-Employed NUS Sociology Graduate Earns $1200 As Part-Time Accounts Executive

    Hi Gilbert,

    I came across your website while googling people who are in my plight and would like to share my thoughts and experiences with you.

    I have a diploma in accounting (merit) from a local polytechnic. After NS, I was rejected by NUS for a place in Business School but was offered sociology instead. Because of my interests in business, I did a minor in management and realised to my shock that 30% of those in business school were foreigners – from Vietnam, China, Malaysia who don’t even understand business terms!

    After a year, I lost interest in my course and just breezed through and scraped by with a basic pass degree. Although I admit this is my fault for not working hard and securing a comfortable government job like a few of my peers, but the whole idea is that the private sector is a completely different ball game.

    When I graduated, I sent in hundreds of resume but only got two interviews. The reality for fresh graduates is that unless you have a law, accountancy or medicine degree where you have secured a training contract of some sort then you are safe. Civil service aside, the private sector is very unwilling to take on someone with a general degree with no experience.

    In fact, I have been unemployed for 2 years after graduating and helping  my mother in her restaurant. This has made me feel very inferior towards the S-pass holders from third-world countries! Eventually, I decided to put my diploma as my highest educational level and secured a part-time job as an accounts executive earning $1,200 a month with a local SME working about 20 hours a week.

    I can tell you for a fact that the graduate employment surveys are bullshit! It is done on a voluntarily basis and only those who have secured jobs would have sufficient information to fill such as basic salary and so on. The reality is that the unemployed like myself are too ashamed to fill up the survey.

    Even for those who do, what does 15% of FASS (faculty of arts and social science) graduates who are unemployed SIX months after graduation is no joke, considering the amount they spent on their education. I would personally estimate that around 30% of my peers are unemployed and another 30% are like me underemployed doing jobs like estate and insurance agents which do not even require degrees!

    In my free time, I am also studying for an ACCA to enhance my future prospects after seeing how general degrees have no value in the job market while there are so many foreigners competing with us Singaporeans who have served NS.

    Understand that you are busy with the elections now, but I would love to meet you after so that I am able to get some counselling from you. I find myself better off than most of the stories in our website and thank God for that, but I seriously hope that you can speak up for more of us.

    Thanks,

    FJ

     

    Source: www.transitioning.org

  • NUS Is Asia’s Top University, NTU 55th in Tmes Higher Education World University Rankings

    NUS Is Asia’s Top University, NTU 55th in Tmes Higher Education World University Rankings

    SINGAPORE – The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have both made a good showing in the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings published today (Oct 1).

    As the only Asian university in the global top 30, NUS was crowned Asia’s top university – a first for NUS in the ranking’s 12-year history – while NTU scaled six spots to rank 55th globally in the 2015-2016 rankings.

    The rankings are based on 13 separate performance indicators to reflect a university’s strengths in five areas: Teaching, research, citations, industry income and international outlook. It draws on data from 1,100 institutions, 11 million academic papers and more than 11,000 academic surveys to list the top 800 universities across 70 countries.

    In the latest rankings, NUS was at 26th spot globally. In the previous 2014-2015 edition of the rankings, NUS ranked a spot higher at 25th place and was the second best Asian university, behind the University of Tokyo (ranked 23rd globally).

    In the latest list, the University of Tokyo dropped to 43rd place, just behind China’s Peking University (ranked 42nd). After NUS, these were the next highest ranked Asian institutions.

    Screenshot showing the scores of NTU and NUS in five areas.

    Within the five areas that the universities were scored, NUS was placed in the top 10 in the area of international outlook, which considers a university’s international-to-domestic-student ratio, international-to-domestic-staff ratio and international collaboration. In the areas of teaching (the learning environment) and research (volume, income and reputation), NUS was in the top 30.

    NTU was in the top 20 in the areas of industry income – an indicator for knowledge transfer activity – and international outlook. Neither university placed in the top 30 in the area of citations, which is the research influence indicator that looks at universities’ role in spreading new knowledge and ideas.

    NUS President Professor Tan Chorh Chuan said: “We are pleased that NUS has been placed among the leading universities in the world and top in Asia.” He credited the university’s achievements to “strong support from the government, as well as commitment to excellence by our faculty, staff and students”.

    Pointing to NTU’s leap to 13th place from 39th in the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings a fortnight ago, NTU President Professor Bertil Andersson said: “Although the two indices use different methodologies, they show one common trend – that NTU is on a rapid upward trajectory.” At the 55th spot, NTU has leaped 114 places on the Times Higher Education World University Rankings over the last four years.

    “We will continue to work hard to be a leading global university that is academically and intellectually rigorous and vibrant, and one that serves the needs of Singapore and Singaporeans,” said Prof Andersson. Still, he noted that while rankings are useful for young universities like NTU as it allows them to be benchmarked with the best, “rankings do not shape our strategies”. “We are focused on our fundamentals – to create a world-class environment for learning, teaching and research,” he said.

    Times Higher Education World University Rankings’ editor Phil Baty said NTU’s “consistent rise is particularly impressive” given the 13 rigorous performance indicators used for the rankings. “Singapore is one of the most exciting countries in global higher education at the moment, and NTU is at the heart of that,” he added.

    On NUS, Mr Baty said its new position as Asia’s top university and among the very best of the world’s elite research universities is “thoroughly deserved”. “NUS has proven its strength in depth against the highest global standards,” he said.

    Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • NUS, NTU In Top 13 Of World University Rankings

    NUS, NTU In Top 13 Of World University Rankings

    The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have leapt into the top 13 of the annual World University Rankings, partly due to a change in how research citation is evaluated.

    In the ranking by London-based education consultancy Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) released this morning, NUS took the 12th spot this year, up from 22nd last year, and NTU was placed 13th, up from 39th last year.

    The Massachusetts Institute of Technology topped the list, closely followed by Harvard. The University of Cambridge tied with Stanford University in third place.

    QS said it had changed the way research citation is taken into account, to correct the bias created by a large volume of citation generated by publications in some fields, such as life sciences and medicine.

    QS head of research Ben Sowter said: “For example, the medical sciences account for 49 per cent of the citations in Scopus, the world’s largest citation database.

    “In contrast, the arts and humanities produce only 1 per cent of citations, because of their very different publishing culture.”

    With the change, research citation in five areas – life sciences and medicine, arts and humanities, engineering and technology, social sciences and management, and natural sciences – are given equal weighting of 20 per cent.

    Mr Sowter said the new methodology “now evens the playing field”.

    But even without this change, NUS and NTU would have improved on their rankings this year, he said.

    “NUS has been steadily climbing various league tables for years, and has done so while developing excellence across the academic spectrum.

    “It is that balanced approach that has led to a research profile that is not disproportionately geared towards medicine. This has been revealed with dramatic clarity in this year’s QS World University Rankings,” he added.

    NUS ranked ninth globally in the academic and employers reputation criteria and made it to the global top 10 in three faculty areas.

    NUS president Tan Chorh Chuan said the university needs to review the change in methodology to understand how it has resulted in the changes in ranking this year.

    He added: “Our consistent performance in international rankings is a reflection of Singapore’s strong support for higher education, as well as NUS’ strong focus on talent and excellence. We are also pleased to note that NUS continues to be highly regarded and valued by academics and employers worldwide.”

    On top of a significant improvement in research citation, NTU also fared better in terms of academic reputation and faculty-student ratio.

    Its ascent would have still been remarkable without the change to the research-citation parameter, Mr Sowter said.

    “If QS had continued with the previous approach, NTU would still have gained more than 10 places from last year, underlining its genuine transformation into a world- class university over the past decade,” he added.

    NTU president Bertil Andersson said the achievement is clear recognition that NTU’s investment and efforts to build up its academic and research excellence have paid off.

    He said NTU has been successful in attracting top talents, including promising young international scientists.

    “Our faculty has been producing world-class impactful research,” he said, adding: “It is remarkable that the two Singapore universities, NTU and NUS, are both ranked within the global top 15. This is a fantastic birthday gift for this young nation on its Golden Jubilee.”

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

     

  • Anugerah Warisan Buat Siswazah Terbaik Pengajian Melayu

    Anugerah Warisan Buat Siswazah Terbaik Pengajian Melayu

    Amalan memberi berkat di majlis perkahwinan, memakan jamu dan memelihara burung adalah antara aspek budaya dan tradisi orang Melayu yang menarik perhatian Cik Nur’Izzah Mohamad Afandi.

    Mahasiswa pengajian Melayu di Universiti Nasional Singapura (NUS) itu menyelidik tiga topik tersebut semasa mengikuti program sambil belajar dengan Yayasan Warisan Melayu (MHF) tahun lalu.

    Usaha gigih Cik Nur’Izzah, 23 tahun, mengkaji budaya orang Melayu selama sekitar empat bulan itu mendapat ganjaran manis.

    Tiga artikel yang ditulisnya itu dipilih untuk dipaparkan di gerbang dalam talian MHF,www.warisansg.com/Newsletter.

    Bahkan, pencapaian cemerlangnya dalam program sambil belajar itu telah membantunya muncul sebagai pelajar terbaik dalam kursusnya di NUS.

    Sebagai pelajar terbaik dalam kursus itu, beliau menerima Hadiah MHF yang buat julung-julung kalinya diberikan di majlis penyampaian ijazah NUS semalam.

    Hadiah MHF bernilai $1,000 itu diberikan kepada pelajar kepujian terbaik daripada Jabatan Pengajian Melayu, Fakulti Sastera dan Sains Kemasyarakatan, setiap tahun bermula tahun ini.

    Cik Nur’Izzah, seorang bekas pelajar Maktab Rendah Temasek dan Sekolah Menengah Anderson, ingin melihat penghayatan budaya Melayu yang lebih mendalam.

    “Saya berpendapat perbincangan budaya secara kritikal adalah penting untuk memahami jati diri dan persepsi tentang orang Melayu,” ujar Cik Nur’Izzah, anak kedua dalam tiga beradik.

    Ayahnya, Encik Mohamad Afandi Suradi, ialah seorang penjaga stor manakala ibunya, Cik Sulizah Tan Abdullah, suri rumah.

    Pengerusi Yayasan Warisan Melayu, Cik Zuraidah Abdullah, berkata anugerah itu bertujuan merangsang lebih banyak pengajian mengenai sejarah sosiobudaya orang Melayu di Singapura.

    “Kami berharap Hadiah MHF itu akan memberi inspirasi dan motivasi kepada pelajar kami untuk menjalankan penyelidikan lebih mendalam mengenai masyarakat,” ujar Cik Zuraidah.

    Pada jangka panjang, matlamatnya adalah menghasilkan lebih ramai pakar sejarah dan warisan dalam masyarakat, tambahnya.

     

    Source: http://beritaharian.sg