SIM graduates find jobs easily, but earn less
Peers from public varsities are paid several hundred dollars more: Survey
By Sandra Davie, Senior Writer

Graduates from Singapore's biggest and best-known private school land jobs easily, with most receiving two or more offers.

But the first employment survey carried out by the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) shows that they are typically paid several hundred dollars a month less than their peers from the publicly funded universities.

Seven hundred graduates were polled by the global education arm of the institute, which runs degree courses in partnership with overseas schools.

SIM's other arm is UniSIM, which runs part-time degree courses for working adults. Its graduates were not covered by this survey.

More than nine in 10 found a job within six months of completing their course last year, with most receiving at least two offers and a third getting three or more.

Ten per cent ended up being employed by the Government, mostly at statutory boards such as the Central Provident Fund Board and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.

The graduates' typical monthly starting salary in both the private and public sectors ranged from $2,400 to $2,600 - significantly lower than that earned by those from the public universities.

By contrast, the average monthly salary among Singapore Management University graduates last year was $3,388, while Nanyang Technological University graduates got $3,152 and those at the National University of Singapore earned $3,112.

Mr Lee Kwok Cheong, who heads the institute's global education arm, said the discrepancy could be due to the fact that it is not a government institution.

'This is peculiar to Singapore, where when it comes to higher education, only the government-run institutions are seen to be of high quality,' he said.

He added that although the institute has a good record, several private schools have been exposed over the years for running substandard programmes.

'Unfortunately, we are tarred with the same brush.'

Mr Lee said another reason could be that employers were unfamiliar with its model of education, which involves partnerships with foreign universities.

'We need to reach out more to explain how we ensure that the overseas university programmes we run here are as rigorous as the ones run in the home country.'

He pointed out that one indication of quality was the performance of its students taking up University of London degree courses. Last year, 117 of them got first-class honours and another 414 graduated with second upper honours.

The Straits Times asked four companies which employ graduates from the institute why they paid them less. Only one agreed to comment, on condition of anonymity.

Its human resources manager said private firms took their cue from the public sector. 'It's known that some government ministries and stat boards, if they do hire them, put them on a different scale,' he said. 'So, companies would use that as an excuse to pay Singapore Institute of Management grads less.'