PUBLISHED ONJune 18, 2025 11:01 PMBYChing Shi JieHer graduation ceremony is still a month away, but Singapore Management University (SMU) student Britney Kon is already working full-time.
The 25-year-old Economics major landed a business analyst role at a tech firm in March — after submitting more than 270 job applications since December.
Kon believes that most of her applications were not seen by employers. Still, at one point, she was landing up to three interviews a day.
"Some had five rounds of interviews. I had to wait a week between each round," she said. "A few ghosted me after round four. Companies posting job listings on LinkedIn are also farming for followers. It's a new type of hell altogether."
Kon first received a job offer from a tech firm about two weeks after finishing her final examinations.
"I later got an email saying the company would be winding up due to legal troubles," she said. "I basically lost my first job soon after signing for it."
Kon's job hunting struggles are in contrast to her university's rising reputation in global rankings.
In the latest Britain-based Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2026, released on Thursday (June 19), SMU climbed to 511th place, up from 585th the year before.
The QS rankings, now in its 22nd edition, features over 1,500 universities across 106 countries, assessing institutions based on several indicators, including employer reputation and graduate employment outcomes.
While SMU made significant gains, Singapore's other autonomous universities saw mixed results.
The National University of Singapore (NUS) remained eighth in the world and the highest-ranked university in Asia, while Nanyang Technological University (NTU) emerged 12th, up from its previous ranking of 15th.
But the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) fell from 440th to 519th in the 2026 rankings.
Two other autonomous universities — the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) — are not featured in the rankings.
While Kon eventually secured a job before graduation, she initially assumed that employers favour graduates from NUS, NTU, and SMU, which she described as Singapore's "big three" universities.
"The general consensus was that as long as it was an autonomous university, I could feel safer in terms of job prospects," she said.
The question on whether employers should refer to university rankings in assessing job applicants is not new, but remains unsettled.
Responding to AsiaOne's queries about its recruitment process, the Public Service Division (PSD) said it does not specifically consider university rankings in its hiring guidelines, and there are no preferred educational institutions.
One of Singapore's biggest employers, the Public Service employs about 154,000 public officers working in 16 ministries and more than 50 statutory boards.
"Recruitment has always been based on merit, through fair and open competition," said a PSD spokesperson.
"Candidates are shortlisted based on a holistic review of their relevant skills, competencies, work experience, and alignment with the job's requirements. Academic background is one of the many factors taken into consideration."
In contrast, one local company with 11 full-time staff still relies on university rankings to screen job applicants.
Jerry Lee, co-founder of Grade Solution Learning Centre, which offers online tuition classes, said the name of a candidate's alma mater "matters" when he is reviewing a resume, especially for "very academic" roles such as tutors or curriculum heads.
"In my 13 years of running the business, I can see that those who have strong academic results, they get into top-ranking universities," he said.
"If I'm getting a chemistry teacher and you come from NUS Chemistry, that's a very good sign on our checklist."
When it comes to employers hiring foreign talent, the Ministry of Manpower continues to use the QS World University Rankings as a reference.
Under the Complementarity Assessment Framework, individuals holding degrees from universities ranked in the global top 100 are awarded points that contribute to their eligibility for an Employment Pass.
Ben Sowter, senior vice-president at QS, told AsiaOne that university rankings are still a "necessity" for employers trying to narrow down a large pool of candidates to a more manageable number.
He likened the process to buying a car: "You might be looking for cabin space or top speed. There's so much information and so many options out there that you need a way to shortlist them. Then maybe take a few for a test drive.
"The rankings doesn't provide the full decision for you, but it just enables you to take hundreds of choices and get it down to the last three or four that you're going to do your own personal research on."
Sowter cautioned against using university rankings to unfairly discriminate against candidates or treat them as a strict "pass-fail" metric.
"I've met plenty of graduates from top 10 universities I wouldn't hire, and I've met people from universities outside the top 500 who I'd definitely hire, and even congratulate myself for doing so," he said.
"The skills and capabilities of an individual may be shaped by the institution they attended, but they aren't defined by it."
Several human resource experts AsiaOne spoke to echoed Sowter's view and warned against relying solely on rankings when screening candidates.
Ilse Clement, senior consultant for HR and Business Support from Robert Walters Singapore, said that some employers may associate graduates from top-ranked universities with exposure to rigorous academics and stronger networks.
"Investment banking and elite law firms… the prestige of your university can serve as a filter in early hiring rounds," she said, adding that these companies often partner with top universities to recruit fresh blood.
Such practices, Clement said, perpetuates a misconception that only certain universities produce "worthy" candidates.
As a result, job seekers from less prestigious universities may also face longer job searches, or will have to "prove" their worth through job interviews or internships.
"That being said, many Singaporean employers value performance, experience and certifications. Once in the workforce, actual work results quickly become more important than alma mater," she added.
Aslam Sardar, chief executive officer of the Institute for Human Resource Professionals, said that placing too much weight on university prestige can unintentionally narrow companies' access to qualified talent.
"This narrow lens may hinder innovation, limit workforce diversity and stall business resilience," he said.
"In contrast, organisations that have adopted skills-first hiring practices report significant improvements in quality of hire, talent pipeline diversity, employee performance and retention."
Online tuition provider co-founder Lee said he also hires tutors from private institutions and lesser-known universities.
Regardless of their academic background, all candidates have to pass a written test and go through mock lessons to assess their interpersonal skills.
New hires are also placed on probationary period of three months.
"At the end of the day, when they do the job, the resumes don't tell the full picture," added Lee. "It's not just the degree."
Similarly, local universities told AsiaOne they still pay attention to rankings, but they are now placing more emphasis on preparing students for the workforce.
This includes offering career guidance, mandatory internships, and work-study programmes.
Professor Gan Chee Lip, NTU's associate provost (undergraduate education), said that rankings offer young universities a useful benchmark to assess their progress and development when compared to established universities.
Professor Chee Yeow Meng, chief academic and innovation officer and provost of SUTD, however, said that rankings do not fully capture the value of what a university can provide to society.
"We believe that the true value of a university education lies not just in rankings, but in how ready and relevant our graduates are for the future," he added.
Professor John Thong, deputy president (academic) and provost of SIT, said that the university opts out of participating in global rankings altogther.
"These rankings primarily emphasise academic research output and citation metrics. Our focus is on applied learning, and industry-oriented competency-based education, along with applied research that address real-world industry problems," he added.
Meanwhile, SUSS provost Robbie Goh agrees that global university rankings are more applicable to research intensive universities.
SUSS’ campus in Clementi offers both counselling and social work programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
“As a university dedicated to social good, we take a broader view of impact – one that values not just work cited in journals, but also work that advances knowledge of social conditions, and that can influence policy and practice as well,” said Prof Goh. “Many of these forms of impact are not fully captured by conventional ranking metrics.”
SMU provost Alan Chan said that instead of university rankings, students should choose a university that fits their interests, where the academic culture aligns with their learning style and aspirations.
In a first among universities here, SMU's graduating class of 2025 will receive in July a transcript recording their co-curricular activities (CCAs) on top of their academic transcript.
"Students should consider whether the university offers a holistic undergraduate experience… as well as career and mentoring support and the graduate employment outcomes," said Prof Chan.
According to the Joint Autonomous Universities Graduate Employment Survey released in February, about 79.5 per cent of graduates from autonomous universities secured full-time permanent roles within six months of graduation in 2024, with six per cent doing part-time or temporary work, and 1.6 per cent working freelance.
In contrast, less than half of fresh graduates from private education institutions (PEI) found full-time employment in 2024.
A separate survey released by SkillsFuture Singapore in April showed that only 46.4 per cent secured full-time jobs, while 24.2 per cent took on part-time roles, and 4.2 per cent were working freelance.
Unlike publicly funded autonomous universities, PEIs in Singapore that offer degree programmes from overseas universities are not listed in QS' World University Rankings.
Does that mean the likes of Kaplan and the Singapore Institute of Management are deemed "less prestigious"?
For Rajbir Singh, 25, he is familiar with the stereotype that often follows students from private universities.
But he said it did not influence his decision when he chose to pursue further education in 2022.
Rajbir did a three-year course with SIM and graduated in December last year with a psychology degree from the University at Buffalo.
He is currently in a contract role at a consultancy firm and will be starting a full-time position at audit, tax, and advisory firm KPMG Singapore in July.
Rajbir credits the career guidance and support he received at SIM, including career and internship fairs, as well as mentorship programmes.
"It's not really about autonomous universities versus private universities," he said. "Ultimately, you can be in whatever institution. If you put in the work, eventually you will be rewarded for your efforts."
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