Are you or a loved one interested in becoming a professor but not sure about how much professors make? This article will give you the numbers and help you decide if you want to pursue a career as a full time professor.
INTRODUCTION
In Singapore, we are always comparing ourselves to our neighbours and even as far away as New York to know how much people earn in their country. But what about the professors here? How much does a Professor from Singapore earn? Does this salary reflect on their effort and dedication when teaching?
Research associate at NTU here, I already have masters and get SGD 4K per month. After my Ph.D defence, I will get nearer to SGD 5500 if I stay. (Honestly, I don’t intend to stay although the money is not too bad.)
Attracting high quality quality researchers or fresh graduates in these positions has a lot to do with future opportunites rather than just the salary. No one wants to stay a research associate/fellow (junior or senior) for his whole life. And that is where being in NUS or NTU as postdocs really suck. If you do it in a good school in the US, you are more likely to get a tenure track position somewhere even if in the middle of nowhere in Utah, Kansas or Montana, depending on some other factors. But NTU is not going to give tenure tracks to one of their postdocs. (I expect NUS to be the same, although not sure.) For that, they want graduates from top US or European schools (homecoming Singaporeans or foreigners) because both of these are really trying hard to rise up the research ranking, global recognition etc. (The validities of ranks may be questionable, some of them may be more objective than others, but let us leave that aside.) I may be cynical, but the value of a postdoc position to your CV is only the extent it moves you a fraction of an inch closer to a faculty position. If you want that faculty position in Singapore, that’s unlikely to happen. Many postdocs eventually go (back) to China to Malaysia, India or elsewhere taking up faculty positions. If that’s what you want, being in Singapore as postdoc is fine. Or, you have to use the NTU/NUS research position as a stepping stone to Stanford, MIT etc. in whatever capacity. If you can do that, then you have a better chance of eventually getting to teach in Singapore.
On further ellaboration, what might come off as a rant, Singapore has a huge appetite for returning and foreign talents. (This causes some dissatisfaction among Singaporeans who want to rise up internally and also want to stay here, however ironic that sounds.)
Take finance and investment banking for example. Everybody is a wall street return, who either wanted to come to Singapore attracted by it, or coming back home after hitting the glass ceiling in London or New York. Many LinkedIn job advertisements do not hesitate to state “Particularly looking for professionals working overseas.”
Take IT and software. You need a stamp from somewhere in Silicon valley to get your CV read by most HR. So yes, whatever you do, it is better to have an ang-moh stamp to be taken seriously in Singapore. I am not complaining, just as a matter of fact, it is a Singaporean way to judge excellence.
CONCLUSION
Professor salary in Singapore is high relative to other country. College professor salary in Singapore ranges between $75,000 to $85,000 per year. This is a good amount of money in Singapore. Depending on your experience and education, you can earn around $100,000+ per year as a professor. It depends on your teaching load which means how many hours you will have to teach.
