Opening Speech by SUSS President, Professor Tan Tai Yong, at SUSS Convocation 2026

Dr Syed Harun Alhabsyi, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Education and Ministry of National Development

Mdm Halimah Yacob, Chancellor, SUSS,

Mr Edmund Cheng, Pro-Chancellor, SUSS

Dr Loo Choon Yong, Pro-Chancellor, SUSS

Graduands, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen

1. Graduation marks an ending, but it also marks the start of something else: the next chapter that is yours to write. That is why this year's convocation theme is “The Next, Ours to Create.
   
   
2. It is a reminder that the future ahead of you is not something waiting to happen to you. It takes shape through the choices you make, and the people you make them alongside.
   
   
3. Some of you already know what that next step looks like. Others are still finding their footing, and that is just as fine a place to start from. And there is one thing today's stories remind us, it is that none of us writes that next chapter alone.
   
   
4. Let me share two of them with you. At 52, and already well established in his career, Soh Chih Ping chose to return to the classroom.
   
   
5. Not because he had to, but because he wanted to prove to himself that he still could. The challenge was real: finding the stamina for a three-hour lecture after a full day at work, then staying sharp enough to write and revise late into the night.
   
   
6. What carried him through was the community around him. Classmates who were cooperative and understanding. A curriculum that kept him engaged even when he was tired.
   
   
7. Rather than letting an established career mark the end of his learning journey, Chih Ping chose to keep challenging himself, proof that the next chapter can begin at any age, if you are willing to write it.
   
   
8. We see another form of resilience in Nur Asherah Asteroth Binte Azlie. In the middle of her studies, Asherah was diagnosed with ADHD and autism in 2024. The diagnosis put a name to struggles she had long carried quietly.
   
   
9. Concentration did not come easily, and neither did balancing work, school, and family. What kept her going were the people around her: her husband, steadfast in his belief in her; her Capstone mentor, Professor Ooi Chui Ping, who guided her through to the end.
   
   
10. And Asherah's resilience did not stop at her own degree. She co-founded the Biomedical Engineering Interest Group, so that other part-time students carrying as much as she was would have somewhere to belong.
    
    
11. Chih Ping's story speaks of lifelong reinvention. Asherah's speaks of turning struggle into support. Their circumstances differ, but the thread running through both is the same: resilience. And neither of them built it alone.
    
    
12. It grew through the people who stood beside them: family, mentors, classmates who encouraged them to keep going.
    
    
13. This is the truth I want to leave you with. At every stage of life, there is a next to create. A next chapter, a next challenge, a next version of ourselves. And at every stage, we need that ecosystem of support around us, the way Chih Ping and Asherah did.<
    
    
14. That is also our responsibility at the university level. Especially now, in the age of AI, when the pace of change asks more of all of us, we are working to build that ecosystem for you.
    
    
15. Take our new internship initiative with UOB. It places our students in small and medium enterprises to tackle real business challenges using AI, bringing together technical partners, funding support, and SUSS' own expertise in work redesign and training to help these businesses transform over time.
    
    
16. One student, Ahmad Solehin Bin Kamarudin, began a six-month internship at an SME called Events Partner. His work supported the company’s efforts to introduce AI and automation across different functions, helping to streamline processes and reduce manual administrative work.
    
    
17. The placement has since progressed into a Work-Study Degree programme with the company, where Solehin will complete 12 months of on-the-job training and an industry-applied project. What began as a six-month internship has grown into a deeper learning partnership, providing our student the opportunity to contribute to real business needs.
    
    
18. More importantly, it creates learning through action. Students gain experience solving real-world problems, while businesses build the capabilities they need to navigate an increasingly complex future. Because ultimately, the challenge ahead is not just technological. It is human. Progress will depend on people and organisations willing to learn and grow in the face of change.
    
    
19. Today, as we celebrate the Class of 2026, that responsibility passes to you.
    
    
20. To all our graduands, my warmest congratulations. Not simply for the degree you now hold, but for everything this journey asked of you, and the resilience with which you answered.
    
    
21. Many of you built this degree around careers, around families, around the unexpected turns life kept throwing your way. You learnt to adjust when plans fell through, to keep faith when progress felt slow, and to keep walking even when you could not yet see the end of the road, much as Chih Ping and Asherah did.
    
    
22. Those are not just the qualities that got you here. They are the qualities that will carry you forward. And that is what our theme really asks of you. The future is not handed to us fully formed. We build it, choice by choice, value by value, action by action.
    
    
23. So step out, hold on to the people who stood beside you, and look for someone to stand beside next.
    
    
24. The next chapter is now yours to create.