my 2 cents about the professor profession.

It seems a pretty good life if you love doing research and are committed to academic type of work. A close assistant professor from university of michigan of mine only meets his boss once or twice a year. The objective of the annual meeting is to receive compliment from his Boss "great job you did!" Other than that, the whole entire year you work on your own research and present at annual marketing..finance.. operations conferences.. depending on what field you are in.. you get to stay at nice hotels and meet smart people..

he's paid 15k per month only 32 years old. damn.

Is it true that SMU here pays asst profs 20k a month?

SMU president earns 1.1 million SGD annually. duno about the rest...

yes, but only the law profs and finance profs that have a finance phd. the rest are lower. but not that much lower either.

Rubbish.
You just have to teach in some other uni first.
Then you'll be eligible for employment in NUS.

If u are interested for the sake of research study professor is a good option . But if u study professor for the sake of high salary. I have doubted that u might succeed. Is an unguarantee trait with a lot of monetary and time invested. I think u better use your scientific knowledge to develop the next Facebook/ next ****** or next spaceship which can benefit the human race

Nope. Its about 140k pa. But! You get a LOT LOT LOT of free time to earn extra teaching money elsewhere by teaching other courses.

looks like smu prof pay even higher than top bankers!

starting pay of phd holder
 

Got a friend with fresh phd offered teaching job at a Poly only on a $4K pm salary. isnt it too low?

Wow.. That's rather low... I have 3k pm.. And I just started work

thats about it. why poly? with a phD, better to look for something in the universities, there are so many nowadays here!

there are also many phds holders to pick. unless you are from the top ivy league, chances of getting into local uni is very very slim.

consider rsoldH
 

if they are teaching elsewhere, most probaby tertiary, that would be a direct conflict of interest. will be sacked by SMU. SMU gives so called 'free time' is for the acad staff to churn out publication, not for moonlighting.

That's about right.

updated salaries?
 

Hi,

the most recent data i found about salaries of professors in singapore were back in 2004. Does anyone have any information on recent data for assistant, associate and/or full professor in the leading business schools (i.e. in accounting and finance fields) at Singapore?


Thank you

Passion. Motivation. Thirst for knowledge and change.

good luck TS. I hope your dreams turn to reality.

It might be better to listen to your heart as no one else could make the decision for you. About 13 years ago, I took a leap of faith, quitted my job and pursued a phd. I like research and I am now a full prof in local university. I like the job and enjoy being with young and energitic people. My papers are well cited and useful to both academics and practitioners. That is something money cannot buy. I don't think maximizing my wealth is the most ineresting thing I could do with my life. My circle of friends are serious researchers and they are are not big spenders. We are pretty contented individuals. :-)

There are risks for not getting tenure... That's why you must be truly passionate...

Is it possible for me to do a PhD which is not related to my current job scope and still end up teaching this new subject after graduating w the PhD?

For example, I am not currently working in finance. But I wish to do a PhD in finance and be a finance lecturer upon graduation. Is this possible?

Appreciate any insights on this matter :)

June 2010 report on wages, MOM. Under the category, University and Poly Lecturers.

Mean: $7,170
First Percentile: $5,050 (from other threads, that's the starting pay of poly lecturers)
Third percentile: $8,750
Median: $7200

My guess is for a assistant professor, it runs between $6k - $8k.
Full fledged: $8k - $12k

Nothing conclusive, just a rough estimation.

I think my estimations are somewhere near, best that i can do with statistics and my understanding of rough wages. Don't forget they stay in campus and many rent their existing property for rents between 2k - 5k (HDB). Add that sum in and that's a 'fair' salary.

Fair, considering the time and money set for PHD education. 'Fair' considering how much your peers has earned in corporate world.

Hope i helped. Feel free to correct me if anything's wrong.

Possible. Because lecturers in academia has the least sense of what happens outside. They live in their perfect, rational, logical, and non-randomness academia all their lives.

But again, what's your degree in? It may be hard to complete PHD without prior education and experience.

I don't think just because they teach in business schools, they receive much more remuneration. It must be fair to other professors as well due to similar job scopes.

Based on my estimation, assoc professors should earn somewhere above 6k. Full fledged probably at about 8k +. Unless you are in harvard.. then.. but i think NBS and NUS should be around that range. Not typically quite high flyers on salary. But if you wish to join academia, that's something you should have thought about at the start.

Nope. My professor at NTU earns 14k/mth as an associate professor. It is not easy to be granted the title of associate prof...you need enough publications to be even considered for that position. Full fledge professor is 20k/mth.

That high? Any source?

I have no source but I'm unsure if you could find online. Teaching fellow without profession title already 8k. My source is from my own professors ...it is up to you to believe.

Just analyze logically. You think it is easy to become even an assistant professor? You know how many publications you need to even fulfill the basic criteria? It is damn difficult and we have lots of bright post-docs from other countries who could devote their time 24/7 to research. And you are talking about NUS NTU...

I honestly don't think it's that high. I like to trust statistics.
And also logical reasoning. Salary is determine by how much value you bring in to an industry. Whether you like it or not, it's a rule in economics. For this reason, this is why bankers who only knows how to do one plus one earns more than a quant doing complex mathematical models within the same bank, because one does bring in revenue directly, and one is trying to bring in with no conclusive results.

For academia or teaching staffs, no doubt it's hard to get that status with the publications, they don't actually value add the university in revenues. They take up money instead, the money they spend on their own research.

We know for a universal fact that polytechnics lecturer is 5k to 6k. As i explained earlier with the stats in MOM, someone earns 8k per month. Who can it be? If like what you say, that an assoc prof earn $14k, the graph will look funny as it come to some point and it will jump from a $6k to a $14k. There isn't a gradient. It's a vertical climb.

Granted, it's hard to get professorship. The amount of publication you have to do, the years you have to set aside for PHD education, resulting in the lost of opportunity cost. Even if you factor all these in, how much difference can it be?

I don't have a formula to calculate that, but i'm sure the difference will not be a 8k per month ($96000 PA) .

Furthermore i found something that you may like.

ExpatSingapore - Is S$90,000 salary good for a NUS senior fellow

10 years prof offerred $90k annual package by NUS in a bid to pull him to Singapore.

I may be wrong on some grounds, but the idea is there. They can't be fetching that high salary.

Appreciate yr reply :)
My basic degree is in Electrical Engineering. I am currently doing an MBA (part time). I hope that upon completion, I can enrol in a PhD program in finance and be a lecturer.

Yes, it's true that lecturers live in a controlled 'laboratory-like' environment. But I feel strongly that I belong in such a world. I have been in the corporate world long enough to acknowledge this.

So wrt my plan, how feasible is it? :D

I hope your MBA is in some prestigious university? At least ranking top 50 in world.
Why so is because academia is very very selective and particular about your origin of education.

Try to get your PhD from a prestigious university as well. The path is hard, you may need to set aside five to six years of your life studying. Or at least, doing a simple job that gives you time to study but remain stagnant in pay and progression.

But I have no doubts in your abilities. Electrical engineering is a tough degree, just completing it shows that you are of some calibre, definitely cut for finance mathematics. And well be prepared to answer people's question to you that why your path is so different. Engineering, business and finance is worlds apart! One technical, one management, and one technical in ANOTHER new field.

Have you thought about it? Is it worth it?

And also bear in mind the risk. My friend went ahead and complete his PhD without much thoughts. Got his PhD from some australian university. Not recognised anywhere, except that on the letter of rejection they address him as Dr. Lim. You should consider all these factors out there.

I'm trying to analyse it logically like you say from an economics point of view. Main idea being, they can't be paid that high because they don't bring remuneration value to company (university)

It's just fair that company pays for the people who brings in the revenue. This concept isn't new, and it's why derivatives analysts in bank earns less than a equally competent mortgage banker because of the value they add to the company. This phenomenon is criticised in many books because it's just confusing. Why does someone who has much better mathematical skills earn lesser than someone who doesn't? We can be sure that quants are the brightest in banks, many coming from prestigious university with PhDs. But they don't earn much. This concept is written in many books and i shall not dwell deeper in case i will bore you.

Underlying logic, we can think of quants in a bank as academia, people who do nothing but just research and come up with theory. If quants with PhDs can't exceed a 20k celling working for a bank that earns billions from their models, how can a full-fledged professor be earning 20k?

Professor, though prestigious, do not earn that much. They don't bring in direct revenue for the organisation. It's a hard truth, and people are not willing to accept it. How can some one who spend so much time and money on education not be earning as much as i thought? Because it's the economic model. Hence explain the saying "the people who only knows how to do plus minus divide and multiply can in fact earn more than the professor in mathematics". The only reason is the economic model.

And i found a link that you may be interested in. Two in fact.

NUS Asst. Prof can't afford HDB Flat. Got his PhD from imperial college UK.

Walao, even NUS asst prof also cannot afford to buy HDB flat..!!!!!!!!

Senior Prof with ten year experience in states offered a $90k annual package by NUS.

ExpatSingapore - Is S$90,000 salary good for a NUS senior fellow

They may be dated, but there's no way $90k p.a can become your said $240k p.a (you mentioned at least $20k a month) for a full prof in two years.

You're welcomed.

SMU finance profs make more than 200k, already a pittance compared to the average banker / trader they help produce.

Yep. They do.

All the answers that give vastly varying figures from 6k/month to 20k/month are all correct. The pay for profs is heavily dependent on a number of factors like:
1. What is your specific Phd in. A Phd(Finance) from a tier 1 American university is damn rare, and the prof will very easily get 30k a month starting. A Phd(Economics) from the same university will probably get at most 15k - 20k a month, simply because that Phd is easier to get from a Finance Phd.

2. Amount of academic research the Prof has done.
3. Amount of industry experience. (This factor doesn't weigh as heavily as academic research, since profs are academics after all.

4. You can't compare a poly lecturer pay to a university professor. it's really... very different.

5. How rich the university is, and the current strategy the university is employing. SMU is trying to grow their faculty very rapidly, and they are also very rich. They simply offer the NUS and NTU profs more money, and so they switch over to SMU. So assoc. profs in SMU easily get 300k - 400k /year, while those in NUS get 200k - 300k for teaching the exact same thing. [For 300k range, i'm assuming Phd in Finance, Law or Business. Other types of Phd don't get so much].

6. And of course, it also depends on how well the Prof teaches.

And to add on:

7. The pay for Profs is really very industry specific. Fresh law graduates in the top 20% already start at 5.5k, while 4th year legal associates can easily get 10 - 12k. So an assistant professor of law will definitely be getting at least 15k - 20k, while a full professor could get 50k.
On the other hand, fresh engin grads in the top 20% get about 3.5k, so if you extrapolate this, then perhaps an assistant prof of engin will get maybe 10k.

To the person above who stated that quants don't make above 20k, I don't really agree. I know a couple of them that definitely make way above 20k. Base pay, yes, maybe they don't get above 250k a year. But when you factor in their 300k bonus, then they are really getting at least 40k a month. (again, depends on which bank and level of seniority. Goldman Sachs obviously pays much more than DBS Bank).

goods ignvori
 

Very true. Range is very large and depends on the field. For example, business and law school general draw almost twice of engineering or other social sciences. Therefore, it is so common to see economics or psychology PhD grads try to get into biz school faculty. Also common to see new asst prof drawing more than assoc prof (from older generation). So it is very hard to estimate without being in the industry yourself.

I remember the recent sex-for-grade case for A/Prof Tey who is a ex-district judge. The paper revealed that he made $225K in 2010.

That should give some clues...

Law prof Tey Tsun Hang found guilty in sex-for-grades case - Channel NewsAsia

During the three-hour long judgement, Tey was described as not having any "basic decency" as he made Ms Ko pay his expenses for a trip to the United States. At that time, Ms Ko was an exchange student at Duke University and Tey visited her, but only offered to pay his own airfare.

The judge said this happened when the law professor was earning S$225,000 as at February 2010, while Ms Ko was a mere student.

Another reliable source: Singapore Law Watch - Prosecution calls for jail term for prof

He (Tey) was drawing an annual salary of $225,000 at NUS. But the university, following his conviction, terminated his appointment with immediate effect.

Heard of asst profs (fresh from phd) get around 100k

Recr. Process
 

can anyone give me insight on the time period required for recruitment process with NUS after shortlisting?

This thread is really very insightful. Lots of great comments from people. Camping here for more. :)

Ex-NUS law prof starts serving five-month jail term

"Tey was earning an annual salary of more than $225,000 at NUS."

The 3 universities pay quite competitively -- although as pointed out, ceteris paribus, SMU "usually" pays better since it is newer.

I received my PhD from one of the US universities that the OP mentioned in the 1st page. Received an offer from one of the universities in Singapore (Asst. Prof position). I don't remember the exact figures, but the pay is $12k+ per month, with additional research money.

Some comments for those thinking of doing PhD
1. Getting into a top program is essential if you want to land a good job thereafter. The prestige, training, network, etc all come into play.

2. But getting into a top program is highly random. Top PhD programs are highly selective, and they only accept few students per year from all over the work.

3. I'm not sure how important your undergrad grades is in helping you to get into a program. I "only" have a 2nd class Upper from a local university, and I got into one of the top 3 programs in my field. Go figure :) (But I do have a 99-percentile test score and some crazy work experience when I was applying.... those might have helped...)

4. Suppose you do graduate with your PhD. Congrats! Now, there is new uncertainties in term of your placement. You would be competing with a pool of highly qualified PhDs (newly minted + senior assistant profs who didn't get tenured) on the job market. The prestige, training, network from your school can help you to open some doors and maybe get some flyouts. But after that, very much depends on how you perform during your job talks and interviews, relative to other job candidates (i.e., your competitors). It also depends on how good the job market is during the year that you graduate - and there is no way you can predict what's the market is going to be like in 6 to 7 years time.

Finally, a job in a good/top university is going to pay you well. After being a poor and broke graduate student for 5 to 6 years, any amount would seem like the best gift from heaven :). However, while the starting pay is attractive, the _increment_ from year to year isn't going to be huge, compared to what happens in the industry. If $$$ is what you are after, go do an MBA.

Sorry to bump up this thread, but does anyone know what the average salarly for an Social Sciences Professor is? Thanks!