It’s been more than a week since Madam Halimah Yacob stepped down as President, and some Singaporeans might be wondering what she’s been up to since then.
Looks like she will still be keeping herself active as she has been appointed the next Chancellor of the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS).
Source: SUSS via Ministry of Communications and Information
She will take up the position on 1 Oct.
Madam Halimah’s appointment was announced in a media release by SUSS on Monday (25 Sep).
Besides revealing that it’s effective 1 Oct, SUSS said she’ll be taking over the current Chancellor, Stephen Lee.
The Chancellor is the highest-ranking official of a university. However, the position may also be ceremonial in nature, with the Chancellor assisting the university’s President.
In the case of SUSS, their President is Professor Tan Tai Yong, who is their academic leader.
Source: Google Maps
While Madam Halimah’s appointment is new, she’s no stranger to SUSS.
In fact, as President, she was a patron of SUSS and attended their convocations.
Source: SUSS on Facebook
She was also a patron of Singapore Management University (SMU).
Furthermore, she was also concurrently Chancellor of another two local universities — the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
That’s because being the President of Singapore automatically made her Chancellor of those two universities as well.
Source: NUS
These positions will ostensibly be passed on to our current President, Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
Madam Halimah said she is honoured to be appointed SUSS Chancellor.
In a Facebook post on Monday (25 Sep), she also said she was grateful for the opportunity to contribute to SUSS.
Source: Halimah Yacob on Facebook
Describing it as a “young university with tremendous potential to be the university of choice for working people in their quest for continuous learning”, she also added that it has “a unique place in Singapore”.
Thus, she stated,
I look forward to working with all our partners to achieve the university’s vision and mission.
Though SUSS was established in 2017, Madam Halimah isn’t its first female Chancellor.
That was Dr Aline Wong, who used to be Senior Minister of State for Education. Dr Wong was also the first woman to be Chancellor of a Singapore university.
However, Madam Halimah is a groundbreaker herself, having been Singapore’s first female Speaker of Parliament and of course, our first female President.
Source: Halimah Yacob on Facebook
Just before she left office, though, Madam Halimah was seemingly intending to take it easy.
She told Channel NewsAsia (CNA) in an interview that she was stepping down to retire and spend more time with her family.
Perhaps after being in public life for decades, she just couldn’t resist being back in action again.
Mr Lee, the outgoing SUSS Chancellor, used to be chairman of Singapore Airlines (SIA). He has been Chancellor since 2018.
He was also a member of the Council of Presidential Advisers (CPA). According to the Istana’s website, he was there from January 2008 to June 2020.
The Istana also said that Mr Lee used to be President of the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF), Chairman of PSA International Pte Ltd, and a board member of Fraser & Neave, just to name a few.
He is currently the Chairman of Shanghai Commercial Bank (Hong Kong). He’s also on the board of directors of Temasek Holdings, among other positions.
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Featured image adapted from Ministry of Communications and Information via @suss.sg on Instagram and Google Maps.
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