84 — Ahead of the Curve
Interconnections — 85
COMMENCEMENT
2016
Some 2,663 Singapore Management University
(SMU) graduates celebrated the end of their
four years at SMU at the SMU Commencement
2016 ceremony held on July 13, 2016.
Graduates included 1,806 Bachelor’s
degree graduates, 39 Juris Doctor graduates,
798 Master’s degree graduates and 20
doctorate degree graduates.
“You are graduating from a unique univer-
sity,” said Mr. Ong Ye Kung, Acting Minister for
Education (Higher Education and Skills) and
Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Defence.
Mr. Ong was the Guest of Honour at the event.
He noted that adjectives commonly used
by employers to describe SMU graduates are
“confident”, “articulate”, socially savvy” and
“street smart”. But he urged them to do more.
“You have to make yourself different. Don’t
settle to be a cookie-cutter graduate… SMU
has brought you this far. The rest is up to you.”
In his welcome address, SMU Chairman,
Mr. Ho Kwon Ping, told the graduating class:
“Your privileged position as an SMU graduate
compels you towards a responsibility to shape
CONVOCATION 2016
Singapore Management University (SMU)
welcomed its 17
th
cohort of 1,983 freshmen at
its Convocation Ceremony held at Suntec Con-
vention Centre on August 12, 2016.
Dr. Victor Fung, Group Chairman of Fung
Group and Honorary Chairman of Li & Fung
Limited, was the Guest-of-Honour and delivered
the Keynote Address. SMU Chancellor J Y
Pillay, SMU Chairman Ho Kwon Ping and SMU
President Arnoud De Meyer were also present.
Alluding to the sports theme of the Convo-
cation Ceremony, Mr. Ho said: “Sports imparts
upon us both leadership and humility, self-
awareness and empathy. It is simply engaging in
the pursuit of sports, rather than the attainment
of excellence in it, that imparts “character” in a
young person. The corollary in the academic life
is the fact that more often than not, it is in the
asking why that one learns more, than in simply
knowing the answer.”
In his speech, Professor De Meyer
announced that two new majors would be
launched in – Entrepreneurship by the Lee Kong
Chian School of Business and Politics, Law and
Economics by the School of Social Sciences.
INTERCONNECTIONS
LKCSB COMMUNITY
“You have to make yourself different.
Don’t settle to be a cookie-cutter
graduate… SMU has brought you
this far. The rest is up to you.”
the Singapore you will live and prosper in. Civil
society in Singapore will become increasingly
important in the collective governance of this
nation, and whatever your chosen vocation, you
can play a meaningful role in the many voices
which make up civil society.”
SMU President, Professor Arnoud De Meyer,
added: “The future is yours to shape – and
as members of the younger generation in the
United Kingdom have recently discovered in the
European Union membership referendum, if you
do not speak out and play an active role, you
may not like the consequences.”
He urged the graduates to “put all that you
have learned and experienced to good use – for
the sake of yourselves and others.”
