It’s 2019 and a brand new year to look forward to.  Do you realise that this is our last “teen” year before we enter the 2020s?  What’s so special, you may ask?  Isn’t age and time just a number and moment?  Well, it’s certainly true in a sense but such milestone crossings somehow give us a sense of renewed purpose and a timely reminder to get going with realising our dreams.

With so much national and media attention on lifelong learning, you would already know its importance and I will not belabour the point.  But how about “lifelong service”?  Often the purpose of learning is not just to improve our knowledge and skills for career progress but also to enable us to contribute, and be of service to society.

As the Singapore University of Social Sciences, our mission is to provide lifelong education, equipping learners to serve society. And this mission is not limited to only those pursuing programmes in the social services sector.  Those of us involved in science and technology, business, law or humanities and behavioural sciences can also do our part in the products and services that we develop or provide to improve and impact lives. As a student, your course projects, service learning, and community projects, whether conducted locally or overseas, were aimed at enabling you to put into practice what you have learnt for social good.

We hope that all these have not come to an end upon your graduation. At Alumni Relations, we aim to continue with more active connections and collaboration with our alumni, offering more programmes and activities to help you carry on this lifelong service goal.  In this issue, you will read about some of the projects that our students and alumni have been involved in.

We hope that more of you will be inspired to continue the relentless pursuit of this lifelong service objective. Do join us in living up to our SUSS name and mission – your partnership is most valued.

Evelyn Chong

Director, Office of Student and Alumni Relations

Recent SUSS graduates' have been given a welcome head start into the job market. This group of pioneers were presented with their records of non-academic achievements encapsulated in enhanced transcripts and e-portfolios.

This development by the university highlights the graduates continuous learning outside their curriculum, and directs focus on their professional development.  It is intended to boost their employability prospects, through the identification of relevant skills and attributes that employers may be seeking.

This advantage provided by SUSS reinforces our cornerstone philosophy of the Three Hs –Head, Heart and Habit. Everything we do, from our teaching methods to our programme structure and this new initiative of e-transcripts and e-portfolio are designed to train and develop graduates who are:

Head: Professionally competent and job-ready, with strong applied skills
Heart: Socially conscious with a desire to make positive changes in society
Habit: A self-directed learner with strong work ethics and values

The new global work space we are now operating in demands an enhanced shift towards developing employability skills, and SUSS is doing just that.

Gregory Athastaraj Francis
Columnist