The Presidential Elections 2023 have just ended, and we now have a new President.
What, then, will our former President Halimah Yacob be doing?
Well, she’s definitely not resting on her laurels.
The former President (and the first and only female President of Singapore so far) will be the Chancellor of the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS).
Here is more about her new appointment after being President.
Former President Halimah Yacob Will Be Chancellor of SUSS
Just yesterday, one of the universities in Singapore, SUSS, announced that they are welcoming our former President Halimah Yacob as their Chancellor.
This appointment as Chancellor will be effective 1 October 2023.
What a short break for the former President since she stepped down as President of Singapore.
Who, then, does Chancellor Halimah take over? That would be Mr Stephen Lee, who has been SUSS’ Chancellor since 2018.
Some of Mr Lee’s achievements during his time as Chancellor included helming a key position in SUSS’ convocation ceremonies, which are a “significant milestone for thousands of SUSS graduates”.
We guess this means seeing former President Halimah in many more public appearances from now on.
And it seems like Mdm Halimah is excited to take on this new role.
The SUSS website quotes Mdm Halimah saying that she is “honoured to be appointed as the new Chancellor of SUSS”.
She “firmly believes” in learning for life, which is the mission of the university and wants to work collaboratively with all stakeholders to ensure SUSS’ continued success in impacting society through applied social sciences.
Indeed, Mdm Halimah has been affiliated with SUSS for some time now. During her extensive and illustrious career, she became patron to over 40 charitable and community organisations, including SUSS.
Part of her work included gracing “several university events, including the renaming ceremony for SUSS’ School of Human Development & Social Services to the S R Nathan School of Human Development”.
If you’re wondering if it is the norm for Singapore’s Presidents to take up other work after they step down as President, the answer seems to be “yes”.
Former President Tony Tan also took up a position at a local university, Singapore Management University (SMU), after he stepped down from his presidential role.
In particular, Mr Tan was named honourary patron and distinguished senior fellow at SMU.
Tatler Asia reported that Mr Tan had SMU dear to his heart and integrated his responsibilities at the university into his daily life, including working from the SMU office.