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About Singapore Management University (SMU)

Singapore Management University (SMU) is a young institution at the forefront of business education in Singapore and Asia.

Founded in 2000 and modelled on the renowned Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, SMU fills a unique place in the Singaporean education landscape as a specialised and leading provider of business-based education.

The university is made up of seven schools covering the intersections of accountancy, business, economics, information systems, law, social sciences and integrative studies. Each boasts academic and industry experts amongst the faculty to provide over 12,000 postgraduate and undergraduate students from around the world with a top-class learning experience.

SMU aims to produce articulate graduates who are comfortable with critical thinking and leadership, using cutting-edge research combined with business knowledge to educate students. SMU is recognised as a world-class research institution with distinguished teaching, addressing Asian issues of a global relevance with awareness of its environment.

Situated in the heart of downtown Singapore, SMU offers students access to a modern city campus which strategically links with businesses, the government and the wider community.

Despite being established for two decades, SMU was awarded five-star ratings for Overall Excellence, Employability, Facilities, Inclusiveness, Internationalisation and Specialisation in Social Sciences and Management by the QS Stars Asian University Rankings in 2021.

It was also the youngest institution to be accredited by the AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) in 2011, with the Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB) and School of Accountancy (SOA) earning re-accreditation in 2016. Only two per cent of universities in Southeast Asia offering business degrees have achieved this accreditation.

Admissions

Entry requirements

SMU looks for students with leadership and intellectual qualities for its postgraduate programmes. Besides the programme-specific admission conditions, there are other requirements to determine the academic and personal aptitude of students. On the academic front, the applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree from a reputed institution, a competitive GRE or GMAT score and a good TOEFL/IELTS score (if the undergraduate degree was not taught in English).

On a personal front, applicants are required to hold a resume with academic and professional achievements, two reference reports and an interview session with SMU admission officers.

Entry requirements for study at SMU may vary according to the student’s country of origin and the existing qualifications that they hold. Prospective students can find detailed information around the minimum academic grades that they need to get a place at SMU on the university’s website.

Scholarships and funding

SMU offers the SMU Masters-ASEAN Scholarship for postgraduate students hailing from ASEAN member countries. The recipient of the scholarship must have enrolled for a postgraduate professional programme at SMU, must have a commendable academic record and must not be a recipient of other SMU scholarships. Scholarships are also available at programme level.

Many Chinese, Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian and Indian banks like Maybank, State Bank of India, CIMB and OCBC offer education loans to study in Singapore.

Average tuition fees per year for courses at SMU are SG 51,000. There is a wide range of scholarships available to students studying at the university, allowing them to cover the costs of their studies and achieve improved academic outcomes. 

Campus and facilities

In the dynamic, cosmopolitan hub that is Singapore, students will find a vibrant city-state that pulses with the diversity of both East and West. Situated at the crossroads of the world, Singapore is home to multinational companies and thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises, all flourishing in a smart city renowned for its business excellence and connectivity.

Tapping into the energy of the city is a university with a difference – the Singapore Management University. SMU boasts halls like the Mochtar Riady Auditorium that’s equipped with modern facilities which can seat up to 300 students at once. SMU's unique pedagogy involves a seminar-style approach which allows greater contact between students and lecturers. Its classrooms and seminar rooms are customised to achieve this purpose.

Outside classrooms, SMU provides numerous facilities such as a sports hall, arts and culture centre, gym and a running track. The gym is new and has three floors – one for cardio, one for weights and circuits and basement floor for dance fitness. The sports hall is a multipurpose facility where students can play basketball, badminton and volleyball, as well as practice martial arts and archery, to name a few. The hall also features an 11-metre-high wall for rock-climbing. On level six of the administration building is the swimming pool, which comes with a sauna and shower/locker rooms.

SMU also features the basement studio, whose soundproofed walls make it a perfect place to rehearse music, produce music and hold jamming sessions.

Graduate outcomes

SMU takes special interest in enhancing the employability of its postgraduate students through its postgraduate career services centre. The university hosts over 50 career development programmes and recruitment talks. It also organises career fairs with participation of over 340 employers.

Students at SMU benefit from various initiatives including partnering with employers and connecting with the alumni. MBA students of SMU are assured of internship. This provides them an ideal platform to gain field/industry experience, helping them build their networks.

Students at the university are also each assigned a specific career coach to assist in mapping their career. The coaches constantly connect with the network of employers to expand the career options of students. This is implemented by organising recruitment talks, where employers share their work experience and talk about the companies’ recruitment processes and corporate cultures.

In SMU, 93 per cent of Master of IT in Business students were recruited within six months of graduation in 2021. The career services team also brings industrial professionals to interact with postgraduate students. In these sessions, students gain deep insights into their industries of interest.

What's new

SMU’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB) climbed seven spots and is now placed 6th among top business schools in Asia Pacific, according to 2018 Financial Times (FT) rankings. The rankings are concluded by evaluating the quality of the postgraduate programmes offered by the business schools. LKCSB’s MBA programme is ranked 51st worldwide and 10th in Asia by FT’s Top MBAs for Finance Rankings 2022.

SMU broadened its relationship with many new and existing Chinese partner universities including Xiamen University, Zhejiang University, Nanjing University and Fudan University across subjects including business management and law. Reinforcement of its partnerships has given rise to new projects in the pipeline such as a summer programme for members of the University Consortium of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (UCMSR) and joint research seminars on ageing economics.

On 20 May 2022, SMU established its seventh school, the College of Integrative Studies (CIS) and its flagship programme, Singapore’s first Individualised Major.

SMU has been a path-leader in the area of interdisciplinary education. This has been exemplified in the reimagined SMU Core Curriculum, which the CIS will continue to oversee, and the variety of interdisciplinary majors and joint degree programmes offered by the University. Employers increasingly seek graduates who can cross disciplinary boundaries with ease to attend to the complexities of modern economies and societies.

With the new CIS, SMU deepens its commitment to tackling the fundamental challenges and opportunities of the future, in the three priority areas of digital transformation, growth in Asia, and sustainable living, in an integrative, multi-approach manner. The college will nurture graduates who will find novel solutions beyond a single discipline or traditional paradigms to contribute to industry and society in impactful ways.