Tag: Singapore

Singapore Management University (SMU) Yong Pung How School of Law (YPHSL) will allow interested law students to specialise and gain a higher level of proficiency in the practical and interdisciplinary areas of Corporate Transaction; Law and Technology; and Dispute Resolution via a new Tracks scheme; as well as require all law students to complete a Law Capstone Course before they graduate.

The law school announced these enhancements to its Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and Juris Doctor (JD) programmes following a recent review of its curriculum, which took into key consideration the impact of global trends on the legal sector. The review, part of an on-going process to ensure that the SMU LLB and JD are constantly innovated to meet new and future challenges, collected input and feedback from a panel of over 50 practising lawyers in the private and public sectors.

Professor Lee Pey Woan, Dean of SMU YPHSL said, “The Tracks scheme guides students in elective selection for key and emerging practice areas, gives them the flexibility to tailor their curriculum, and allows them to gain a head-start in their preferred field. More than simply a curation of law electives within a law subfield, this scheme builds upon the multi and interdisciplinary nature of our existing LLB curriculum in recognition that the law does not exist in the abstract but to serve business and broader societal needs. It also recognises the growing diversity in legal career options and the inevitable shift towards more complex work.”

“The legal industry is evolving and is demanding in its workforce a higher level of competency in skills and knowledge in adjacent disciplines that are important to the practice and study of law. These changes will further strengthen and distinguish SMU’s LLB programme, and nurture future-ready and practice-ready SMU law graduates; they also give students a distinct competitive edge when they enter the workforce,” she added.

Currently, all law undergraduates at SMU get baseline exposure to adjacent disciplines (including finance, technology, etc.) as part of the SMU LLB curriculum. Students enrolled in the SMU LLB on and after Academic Year (AY) 2021-2022 who are keen to delve deeper into the interdisciplinary areas can choose to declare a Track, which will be reflected in their official transcripts. This allows students to signal their interest and expertise to their employers in a formal way.

YPHSL is the only law school in Singapore that offers specialisation in law, which is yet another testament to SMU’s innovative approach to education.

Every law student from the AY2021 cohort enrolled in the LLB programme will also be required to take a Law Capstone course. Commenting on the motivation of this new requirement, Professor Lee said, “Recognising that real world problems are increasingly complex, the Law Capstone course adds the polishing touch, training students to look across traditional boundaries by working on projects that span three or more areas of the law and through a practical lens. Rather than looking for fixed or standard answers, students participate in the process of creating new solutions.”

Building upon the university’s flagship SMU-X programme – project-based experiential learning where SMU students work in small groups and apply their interdisciplinary knowledge on real-world projects with industry and faculty mentors – every Law Capstone course going forward will be an SMU-X course. YPHSL has also integrated the Law Capstone requirement into the LLB Tracks. For those who have declared a specific Track, there will be a designated Law Capstone that must be taken.

Singapore Management University (SMU) School of Social Sciences (SOSS) Assistant Professor Kimin Eom has received the Association for Psychological Science (APS) Rising Star designation.

The APS Rising Star designation is presented to outstanding APS Members in the earliest stages of their research career post-PhD. Drawing its name from an Observer editorial series that featured exemplars of the exciting work being done by the field’s newest researchers, this designation recognises researchers whose innovative work has already advanced the field and signals great potential for their continued contributions.

Asst Prof Eom’s primary research examines prosociality, broadly defined – why people behave in ways that benefit others, society, and the globe. In particular, he examines this topic within the context of social and global challenges that threaten society’s sustainability, such as climate change and pandemics.

How he got this achievement

When asked why he thought he has been named as a Rising Star, he said, “My research on culture and sustainability played an important role, I believe. There is a significant body of research on the psychology of sustainability behaviour, but still a dearth of research has considered culture and diversity. Given the global nature of sustainability problems, this is a serious limitation. My research has addressed this gap by examining diverse forms of culture, such as nationality, social class, and religion, to understand how people with different cultural backgrounds respond to sustainability problems and what similarly and differently motivates their sustainability related actions.”

How his research impacts society and its implications

In general, as a scholar, Asst Prof Eom pursues fundamental questions about human psychology (e.g., what motivates human action, how culture shapes human psychology, how others influence our behaviour) but pay close attention and care about the contexts where he addresses those questions. He tries to test theoretically novel ideas in contexts of important and timely social issues. By doing so, his research aims to advance psychological theory while offering practical insights (for interventions, policy making, marketing, etc.) for positive social change.

He further elaborated, “regarding my research on culture and sustainability, policies and interventions are commonly built on implicit assumptions about the ways in which behaviour operates. Importantly, my research has identified cultural differences in determinants of pro-environmental motivation and behaviour. These findings inform what psychological factors can be targeted for different cultural groups. These findings also suggest that we need to apply different assumptions when approaching people with different backgrounds, which should be informed by data and research.”

Other research areas he is working on

Recently, he has actively worked on research on social norms: How people perceive and respond to social norms and their implications for positive attitudes and behaviour change. According to Asst Prof Eom, norms can be powerful tools to be leveraged for behaviour change across various domains at the workplace, school or cultural settings.

Moving forward, he says “I would like to continue to develop and expand my research on culture, norms, and sustainability and offer new knowledge and insights towards greater sustainability and collective well-being.”

A new study by the SMU Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA) revealed that nearly 1 in 3 older adults in Singapore felt there was at least a 50 percent chance that they would be unable to afford basic necessities or have difficulties paying bills.

This latest study, “Concerns over the cost of living among older adults in Singapore”, which polled 6,839 Singaporeans aged 57 to 76 in August 2022, showed a marked increase in the number of seniors who expected their financial situation to worsen. Almost half of the respondents surveyed (45 per cent) felt that they would be forced to lower their standard of living, up from 38 per cent who felt the same way in May 2020 during the circuit-breaker.

The three items respondents were most worried about being able to afford were (in order of most to least) (i) medical services, (ii) utilities, and (iii) prescription medication.

“As intuitive as they may sound, these results warrant closer attention given that economic expectations are an important predictor of well-being. With these findings, we are kept abreast of how rapid inflation and rising costs are shaping the economic concerns and consumption decisions of older Singaporeans. These findings also highlight older adults as a demographic group that is particularly vulnerable to the rising cost of living, and help us to better identify measures that effectively help vulnerable seniors cope with the pinch of rising living costs in line with national efforts to promote successful ageing,” said Professor Paulin Straughan, Director, ROSA.

This study uses data from the Singapore Life Panel®, a population representative monthly online survey of Singaporeans aged 57 to 76 in 2022 that has been conducted since 2015. This study was made possible through the generosity of The Ngee Ann Kongsi and the support of the Ministry of Education.

Full details of the report can be accessed here.

Key findings and recommendations:

1.       Of those surveyed, 45 per cent anticipated that they would be forced to lower their standard of living. This is up from 38 per cent who felt the same way in May 2020 during the circuit-breaker, suggesting that older adults are more concerned now about their financial situations than they were during the circuit-breaker.

2.       32 per cent of respondents surveyed in August 2022 expected that they would be unable to afford basic necessities or have difficulties paying bills, up from 22 per cent in May 2020.

3.       The following demographic groups had the highest expectations of negative financial impacts, where they expected that they would be forced to lower their standard of living or be forced to use their savings or liquidate their investments, and anticipated being unable to afford basic necessities or having difficulties paying their bills:

i.            Respondents who were unemployed, laid off, or on sick leave

ii.            Respondents with primary or no education

iii.            Respondents living in 1-3 room HDB flats

Based on the above findings, ROSA makes these policy recommendations for consideration:

1.       Support for older adults should be targeted at those likely to experience more severe financial difficulties (older adults with low-SES, as well as older adults who are unemployed, laid off, or on sick leave).

2.       Financial support should focus on providing for necessities (utilities, groceries, and healthcare needs), as respondents were most concerned about the affordability of such items.

3.       Effective communication of the government’s mitigation measures for the inflation and impending GST hikes is warranted to buffer the psychological impact of older individuals’ financial concerns.

New research from the Singapore Management University shows that having individuals visualise the shock of future climate change failed to motivate them to change behaviour. Research insights demonstrate the importance of customising communication strategies to different groups, from climate sceptics to individuals already living sustainable lives. This research paper is newly published in PLOS Climate, an open-access journal that furthers understanding of climatic impacts and solutions

There is no easy way to engage with the general public to communicate the risks of climate change, according to a new study. Contrary to the adage of ‘seeing is believing’, individuals who saw what the future impacts of climate change may look like were not positively motivated to make behavioural changes. This was particularly true for climate sceptics[1] and for individuals who already live more climate-friendly and sustainable lives.

Led by Assistant Professor Terry van Gevelt from the College of Integrative Studies, Singapore Management University (SMU), this research investigated the use of immersive virtual experiences to communicate the risks of climate change to the general public, with a focus on coastal cities in Asia. This latest study, “Using virtual simulations of future extreme weather events to communicate climate change risk”, is based on experimental survey data from 1,500 respondents in Hong Kong, conducted in 2021.

Elaborating on the research methodology, Assistant Professor Terry van Gevelt said: “We created a completely feasible and rigorous model of an extreme weather event amplified by the expected impacts of climate change. This extreme weather event – a super typhoon –was then modelled to hit an Asian coastal city (Hong Kong, in this case) and we created a virtual simulation of the event. This virtual simulation was used as a risk communication vehicle, or a way to experientially communicate the future impacts of climate change.”

The authors underscored the importance of not overestimating the effectiveness of immersive visualisations to communicate climate risks.

“Visualising the devastating impacts of climate change play out in the cities we live in should provide the wake-up call needed to modify individual behaviour and support costly climate adaptation and mitigation measures. Unfortunately, our results suggest that ‘seeing is not believing’, especially for climate sceptics,” said Assistant Professor van Gevelt. “This goes to show that there is no easy solution to communicating climate change risk. Instead, we need to accept complexity and see highly targeted and contextual immersive experiences as one component within a comprehensive engagement strategy.”

These research findings were published on 1 February 2023 in PLOS Climate, a Californian-based non-profit and Open Access journal with a focus on collaborative, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research to combat climate change. The research was conducted in collaboration with Duke University, Nanyang Technological University, University of Hong Kong, University of Macau, Hohai University and Sun Yat-sen University.

This work was supported by the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong (ref: 17601221), the University of Hong Kong (ref: 104005971.101497.30100.301.01 and ref: 202009002) and an Epic Games MegaGrant. Ethical approval was granted by the Human Research Ethics Committee at the University of Hong Kong (Ref: EA200187).

[1] Climate sceptics refer to individuals who do not think anthropogenic climate change is happening.

The Overseas Centre Jakarta will be part of a regional eco-system network of knowledge-sharing nodes enabling SMU to be Asia’s Knowledge Gateway.

Singapore Management University (SMU) has opened its first overseas centre in Jakarta, Indonesia on 6 December 2022. This bolsters the university’s goal to positively impact local communities as it advances its “Growth in Asia” strategic priority as part of its Vision 2025.

Since its inception in 2000, SMU has established itself as a premium global-city university in Asia
and made great strides in leveraging its cross-disciplinary strengths to successfully execute its strategic thrusts of delivering transformative education, cutting edge research, and meaningful engagements, to meet Singapore and the region’s future needs as Asia’s Knowledge Gateway.

As Centre Director of the SMU Overseas Centre Jakarta (OCJ), Mr Shoeb Z Kagda will lead the centre to develop deeper engagement between the University’s Schools, Offices, Centres, and Institutes and Indonesia Institutes of Higher Learning, business leaders, and key policy makers.

OCJ will work with local partners in education and industry to support human capital development in Indonesia and enable exchange of knowledge and expertise between Singapore and Indonesia. The Centre will provide direct access to innovative, in-depth knowledge across Institutes of Higher Learning in Indonesia; build deeper engagement with Indonesian business leaders and policy makers; and facilitate regular exchanges between SMU students and Indonesian youth.

Indonesia’s status as the largest economy in Southeast Asia with their rising rates of tertiary educated workforce puts them in an ideal position to capitalise on Asia’s growth. SMU aims to provide the avenue by which Indonesia’s corporate, government and industry workforce can take advantage of SMU’s world class education through its professional continuing education and postgraduate programmes. Additionally, SMU will work to strengthen bilateral efforts so as to develop and carry out strategic collaborative initiatives and programmes to build intellectual capital ground up and positively impact local communities.

More details here.

SMU College of Graduate Research Studies will build strong intellectual content through credit-bearing interdisciplinary courses focused on advanced methods and interdisciplinary research, and a professional development programme focused on skill-based trainings.

It will enhance ‘co-learning’ experiences and academic exchanges across SMU Schools for postgraduate research students and graduates, facilitate the collaboration of faculty members from different Schools and disciplines, as well as strengthen the development of research which is more applied.

Additionally, it will strengthen networking, cohort building and collaborative opportunities for postgraduate research students across the various programmes, facilitated through the student and alumni groups.

With interdisciplinary training, graduates of the new College will be more well-rounded, more relevant, and better able to provide applied contributions to Singapore’s development needs.

The Singapore Management University (SMU) has established its eighth school – the College of Graduate Research Studies (CGRS). The new College aims to develop world-class thought leaders who are trained to undertake cutting-edge research across disciplines, bringing about significant impact to businesses, societies and public institutions worldwide.

To this end, the College will equip SMU postgraduate research students with knowledge and competencies to develop novel solutions that are relevant to some of today’s most challenging issues through the integration of disciplines, culture and industry. It will enhance integration and interdisciplinarity across the various SMU postgraduate research programmes that will enable our students to gain a holistic learning experience and well-grounded approach to their research. This will be achieved through interdisciplinary programmes, shared courses and professional training workshops. Furthermore, the College will strengthen networking, cohort building and collaborative opportunities for postgraduate research students across the various programmes, facilitated through the student and alumni groups.

Mr Ho Kwon Ping, Chairman, SMU said “The establishment of CGRS is in line with the national strategy of building a robust base of research capabilities and peaks of international excellence, as well as nurturing a strong research and innovation talent pipeline. Our community of learners will benefit from the diversity of expertise, disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge and perspectives that will be shared within the College. This enhances the learning experience of postgraduate research students as they become better equipped to understand complex issues and challenges affecting the world across boundaries, and create significant, long-term impact. It will also make them more sought after by academic institutions and industry organisations that have interdisciplinary opportunities. Besides providing a holistic education, the College will also enhance the community-based experience.

“In addition to benefitting our students, the interdisciplinary approach also enables our faculty members to address societal challenges through their thought leadership and research. They increasingly collaborate with colleagues in other Schools, academics in other universities as well as with industry to enhance and accelerate the generation of knowledge.”

Sir Nigel Thrift, Chairman, Academic Affairs Committee, SMU said “The College of Graduate Research Studies is another step towards providing a superlative student experience at SMU, this time for graduate research students. Not only will it establish interdisciplinary programmes and the opportunity to access more interdisciplinary topics and workshops but it will, as a result, allow graduate researchers to gain access to broader research horizons and to discuss these new horizons with many more of their peers.”

Since 2006, SMU has trained over 400 postgraduate research graduates, and is currently training over 580 such students. About 65% of its graduates in academic research PhD programmes are working as faculty members or postdoctoral fellows in prestigious academic universities or institutions in Singapore and internationally, whilst about 35% work on R&D in industries locally and abroad.

Key Elements of CGRS

1. Building strong intellectual interdisciplinary content

(i) CGRS provides postgraduate research students with two categories of courses: Graduate Research Interdisciplinary Topics (GRIT) and Graduate Research Professional Development (GRPD) programme.

GRIT is a series of interdisciplinary courses in curated topics which are either ‘required’ or ‘electives’ depending on the academic research PhD programme. The inaugural interdisciplinary course on ‘Machine Learning for Social Science’ was held in Academic Year (AY) 2021, Term 1. This was followed by the course on ‘Applied Econometrics in Social Science’ in AY2021, Term 2. The course on ‘Introduction to Interdisciplinary Research’ will run in AY2022, Term 1.

GRPD will include two sub-components, comprising Foundation courses (e.g., graduate teaching) and Elective courses (e.g., scientific writing and presentation). This new format, which is credit bearing, will take effect for incoming academic research PhD students from the non-STEM disciplines from AY2022 onwards.

(ii) CGRS will also play an important role in the development of interdisciplinary programmes.

· PhD in Law, Commerce and Technology

CGRS has, together with the Yong Pung How School of Law (YPHSL), launched a new interdisciplinary programme – PhD in Law, Commerce and Technology which will welcome its first students in August 2022.

The first of its kind in Asia-Pacific and among a handful of interdisciplinary research doctoral programmes offered by law schools around the world, the programme is built on YPHSL’s research strengths, particularly in the areas of commercial law, and law and technology.

The programme adopts an industry-focused and policy-oriented approach with the purpose of producing cutting-edge research that can help regulators, companies and society as a whole face the challenges of today’s changing world.

It aims to train future thought leaders in academia, judiciary, regulatory agencies and international organisations, as well as prepare students for a career at leading research-oriented institutions.

· Master’s and PhD programmes in Asian Urbanisms

CGRS has also worked closely with the SMU’s new College of Integrative Studies to launch a Master of Philosophy in Asian Urbanisms and Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Urbanisms, upcoming in AY2023.

The programmes aim to provide an opportunity for Singaporean students, and for students from the Asia region and (eventually) beyond, to access postgraduate-level degrees in urban studies in Singapore that will be theoretically and empirically focused on Asia. With interdisciplinarity at the heart, the programmes integrate courses and supervision from various SMU Schools, especially those with particular urban expertise. Students will develop deep knowledge of the theory and practice in at least one area of urban Asia, and one related area in sustainability, culture or technology. They will also attain the ability to critically analyse problems using either quantitative and/or qualitative research methodologies commonly used in advanced-level scholarly and applied research to address problems of interest to industry partners that can be translated for practical business scenarios.

Professor Wang Heli, Dean of CGRS, said “The launch of the PhD in Law, Commerce and Technology, as well as Master of Philosophy and PhD in Asian Urbanisms, will be our first steps in 2022 and 2023 respectively, to strengthen SMU’s interdisciplinarity in research. The programmes are both academic- and industry-oriented, and our postgraduate research students in these programmes will be expected to bear both intellectual depth and material industrial relevance in their dissertations.”

2. Enhancing ‘co-learning’ experiences and academic exchanges across SMU Schools for postgraduate research students and graduates

CGRS will strengthen the ‘co-learning’ experiences for postgraduate research students via sharing and interdisciplinary learning across Schools through the development and delivery of intellectual content. This intellectual content includes the introduction and facilitation of shared interdisciplinary courses, interdisciplinary programmes (e.g., PhD in Law, Commerce & Technology), as well as interdisciplinary events (like seminars and brown-bag sessions). The College will explore both internal and external resources (e.g., Visiting Fellows) to ensure quality offering of the above-mentioned intellectual content.

3. Strengthening networking, cohort building and collaborative opportunities

The College will ensure that there is enhanced academic and social engagements through the planned Graduate Research Student Society (GRSS). The main objective of the GRSS is to deepen interactions amongst the students through academic events/activities (e.g., brown-bag seminars, poster competitions, and possibly over time an annual Doctoral Conference), and social activities (e.g., get-together or sports sessions). The GRSS will also build strong ties with the planned Graduate Research Alumni Chapter (GRAC), so as to enhance collaborations and source for placements. The GRAC will enhance engagement amongst SMU’s postgraduate research graduates.

New research by academics from leading business schools Singapore Management University (SMU), INSEAD and HEC Paris demonstrate how growth training helps entrepreneurs achieve increased revenues for their ventures. This research project, developed by Prof Reddi Kotha (SMU), Prof Bala Vissa (INSEAD), Yimin Lin (SMU) and Prof Anne Valerie Corboz (HEC Paris), was funded by the Singapore government’s Ministry of Education research grant.

According to the research paper, titled “Do Ambitious Entrepreneurs Benefit More from Training?”, training in growth-catalyst tools helped entrepreneurs achieve a 72% increase in their ventures’ revenues; which is about 40% more than entrepreneurs who did not receive such training. Additionally, the paper also showed that ventures led by entrepreneurs with more ambitious growth expectations experienced revenue growth of about 100% compared to 10% for those who had not received training.

Research findings are based on an extensive field experiment involving interactive training sessions, workshops and personalised coaching which was delivered to 103 Singapore-based entrepreneurs, out of the 181 entrepreneurs participating in the study (the remaining 78 made up the study’s control group). The entrepreneurs, who were running new ventures, received training in three specific areas, or growth-catalyst tools, relevant for formulating and executing innovation-led growth: business-model design, leveraging external networks, and building internal teams.

The paper, which is forthcoming in Strategic Management Journal, also looked at other success measures like a venture’s “survival rate,” in other words, the likelihood that a start-up will survive. According to the study’s findings, ventures whose founders attended had a survival rate of 50 percent against the 36 percent survival rate of ventures led by entrepreneurs who had not been trained in growth-catalyst tools.

Surprisingly, previous research on the impact of training on entrepreneurs and their ventures had provided mixed results – a few studies did find a positive impact of training whilst many others failed to do so. The authors of this study suggested that the prior mixed findings are a reflection of at least two factors: (i) many prior studies were conducted in emerging economies where entrepreneurship is often necessity-based; (ii) entrepreneurs with diverse growth ambitions may have been lumped into the same training intervention with narrower content.

Prof Vissa comments, “our research suggests that perhaps training interventions for entrepreneurship in mature market economies need to be tailored differently for entrepreneurs who value growth versus those who value autonomy or control”.

The authors of the study argue that their findings can support policymakers when designing initiatives to support entrepreneurs. “Fast-growing new ventures founded by opportunity-seeking entrepreneurs benefit society because they are key sources of jobs and innovation that boost economic prosperity,” says Prof. Corboz, citing business and management experts.

“We hope our work encourages new research on entrepreneur training and inform policymakers to draw new plans to help entrepreneurs, as they are key drivers of economic growth,” adds Prof Kotha.

More than 8 in 10 Singaporeans associate suicide with stigma and only one in every three Singaporeans “will do something to help” someone who shares personal thoughts of suicide.

Less than 1 in 10 think the effectiveness of support in Singapore for a person facing a crisis and thinking about or affected by suicide, is high.

A study conducted by the Singapore Management University (SMU) revealed these perceptions of suicide in a city known for its cosmopolitan vibrancy, high quality of life and educated workforce.

With the Samaritans of Singapore (S.O.S.) as supporting partner, SMU Principal Lecturer of Statistics, Rosie Ching, created and carried out the nation-wide study, named “Save.Me.” with her 62 students in January and February this year, interviewing 2,960 people across Singapore, on the topic of suicide. Ms. Ching and her students conducted the surveys through face-to-face interviews, telephone calls and Zoom.

The survey results are available at www.screeningstatistics.com/saveme.

Save.Me. delved into knowledge levels of signs of suicide, beliefs propagated about suicide, their preferred platforms for reaching out for help, the level of support available to people in crisis, and the efficacy of such support channels. It adhered closely to the demographics of Singapore with regard to gender, race, age and found that more than 8 in 10 (83%) in Singapore believe in the existence of stigma associated with suicide. Those with no connection to suicide have a significantly more negative attitude towards suicide than those with immediate family who attempted or took their lives and those with friends who did the same.

Overall, more than 3 in 4 Singaporeans (77%) rate their level of knowledge about suicide as below average. People with more intimate connections to suicide (from immediate family to relatives to friends) cite “No outreach or education” as the top reason for their low knowledge levels. For everyone who would avoid someone suicidal or in a crisis, more than 70% say it is their fear of making the affected person worse, their lack of ability to do anything, and their lack of knowledge.

The most outstanding myth believed by Singaporeans is that that talking about suicide may give someone the idea. People with immediate family connected to suicide form the highest proportion who believe this, at 70%.

Less than 1 in 10 think highly of the effectiveness of support in Singapore for a person facing a crisis and thinking about or affected by suicide, with the overall effectiveness of such support in Singapore rated as significantly lower than average by all profiles of respondents.

Commented Mr Gasper Tan, Chief Executive, Samaritans of Singapore (SOS), “The results from the survey confirms what many of our mental health experts are saying: there is an unprecedented Page 2 of 6 mental health crisis in our country, accentuated by the pandemic. Over the last two years, SOS has seen an increase of 89% in at-risk individuals seeking support. As a community, we must continue to galvanise our resources to strengthen and transform our health care ecosystem to address mental health and suicide holistically and accessibly.”

According to Professor Lieven Demeester, Associate Provost (Teaching and Learning Innovation) at SMU, “It is great that SMU’s collaboration with SOS, has yielded such valuable insights that may be usefully applied towards more effective prevention of suicide.”

The older a person, the more he believes in the unpredictability of suicides. Yet overall, more than 9 in 10 (92%) believe that suicide can be prevented. The younger a person, the higher the percentage who believe suicide can be prevented: Gen Z (93.3%) to Millennials (93%) to Gen X (90%) to Baby-Boomers (84%). The more years of education, the greater the percentage who believe suicide can be predicted and prevented as well, with the highest at 96% of those with postgraduate education.

Said Ms. Ching, “The memory of three special individuals lost to suicide drew me to this realm of suicide. As I learnt from SOS, each of them only wanted the pain, not their life, to stop, but they saw no way out. It is to each of their memories I dedicate every tear shed in Save.Me. I know those whom I have lost would want anyone in crisis to be pulled from the brink, that their pain be addressed, that everyone may know where, how to seek help and support. So that healing may begin.”

Key Findings:

a) More than 8 in 10 (82.87%) believe in existence of stigma associated with suicide in Singapore. All profiles show strong majorities who believe in the stigma of suicide in Singapore.

b) Only one in every three Singaporeans ”will do something to help“ someone who shares personal thoughts of suicide. “Offering presence and continual support” is the top most immediate and effective action, followed by a fairly distant second-placed “Encourage professional support, e.g. mental health counsellors”. Together they form almost 3 in 4 of Singaporeans’ responses to someone in a crisis. Only about a third (33%) would encourage professional support.

c) For every two in three persons who would not support and save someone who is in a crisis or suicidal, more than 70% say it is their fear of making the suicidal person worse, their lack of ability to do anything, and their lack of knowledge.

d) More than 9 in 10 (92%) believe that suicide can be prevented. The younger a person, the higher the percentage who believe suicide can be prevented: Gen Z (93.3%) to Millennials (93%) to Gen X (90%) to Baby-Boomers (84%). The more years of education, the greater the percentage who believe suicide can be prevented, with the highest at almost 10 in 10 (96%) of those with postgraduate education.

e) Preferred sharing platforms: Overall, 6 in every 10 choose “Physical, F2F” as their most comfortable platform to talk to someone about their problems. Second place of text messaging goes for Gen Z and Millennials, but not so for Gen X and Baby-boomers, who prefer the telephone or a hotline. Statistically, text messaging to Gen Z and Millennials is what the telephone or a hotline is to Baby-boomers.

Across all age bands, “a friend” is the person they will most likely turn to about problems. Amongst all age groups, only 6.35% choose a trained counsellor, with Gen X the most open to them at 9.47%. 67.43% would be more willing to talk to someone about their problems if their identity were anonymous, a common thread across genders, ages, races, religions, professions, educational qualifications.

f) Effectiveness of support: Less than 1 in 10 think the effectiveness of support in Singapore for a person facing a crisis and thinking about or affected by suicide, is high. In fact, 74% overall rate the effectiveness of such support in Singapore as significantly lower than average. This low rating stretches across all profiles connected to suicide.

Background Information on Save.Me

In January 2022, SMU students in a unique Statistics module called STATISTICS-X created by Rosie Ching, Principal Lecturer of Statistics at SMU, collaborated with Samaritans of Singapore to conduct Save.Me., an original nationwide study.

With the support of SOS, Ms. Ching spent 13 months in total crafting this project from the outset at the request of SOS CEO Mr. Gasper Tan in December 2020.

At both the kick-off and mid-term of the project, Ms. Ching invited the Samaritans of Singapore to SMU, who warmly and enthusiastically supported and guided her and students about managing persons in distress, and learn about the meaningful work and outreach efforts of the SOS through the many years in Singapore.

Ms Ching and her students collectively invested more than 3.5 months of intense work in the study, survey and analysis, gathering data from more than 2,960 interviews in 5 weeks.