Singapore, SG · 15 months · class of 58
SMU MBA: cost, salary and payback
A 15-month MBA in Singapore whose last public employment report, for the class of 2019, placed 97.5% of graduates in Asia.
Paid back after graduation in
salary not published
Total cost $177,695
| Tuition and fees, whole program | $65,195 |
| Living budget | $0 |
| Salary given up, 15 months | $112,500 |
| Total cost | $177,695 |
| Salary after: salary | not published |
US dollars at the ECB rate of the last update. Raises of 5% a year with the MBA and 3% without, discounted at 5%, before tax. The school publishes no living budget: the figure above is yours. How this is calculated.
Fees and budget read on October 13, 2026 · employment: Class of 2019 (school standard) · Built by Radif Partners · Method
- Tuition and fees
- SGD 83,440
- Total cost, salary given up included
- n/a
- Salary
- not published
- Payback, reference person
- not computable
The SMU MBA, run by the Lee Kong Chian School of Business at Singapore Management University, lists tuition of SGD 82,840 for the August 2027 intake, about $64,726, with SGD 600 of miscellaneous fees on top. The school publishes no living budget, so the total cost for a person earning $90,000 today cannot be completed; that person would give up $112,500 of salary over the 15 months. The only salary SMU has published is a mean for the class of 2019, 6 classes older than the 2025 reports used for other schools, so we leave it out of every comparison and compute no payback. What the 2019 report does show is a regional school: 97.5% of graduates took jobs in Asia, which places SMU number 2 of 18 in our Asia ranking on the share placed there, and 80% had accepted an offer.
Nearly every graduate stays in Asia
SMU's 2019 report shows a class that studies in Singapore and works in the region: 97.5% of the graduates who took a job did so in Asia, 2.5% in Africa, and none in Europe or the United States. On the share placed in Asia, SMU comes number 2 of 18 schools in our Asia ranking, a placement that holds even without a salary. The employers the school names lean toward finance and payments, with OCBC Bank and UOB among them, and financial services was the largest industry at 21%, ahead of technology at 19%.
By job, the picture differs: marketing / sales was the largest function at 26%, ahead of finance and accounting roles at 20%, so the industry and function tables tell different stories about the same class.
SMU: where the class went
Share of the class
10%
| Salary reported | not published |
| Graduates, about | 6 |
| Payback with that salary | n/a |
Reference person earning $90,000 before the MBA.
Why the 2019 salary is left out
A salary from 6 graduating classes ago describes another hiring market. Putting it next to the 2025 medians of other schools would make SMU look cheaper to repay or dearer than it is, depending on how pay moved since, and neither can be checked. So this page shows no salary, no payback and no ten-year value for SMU. The school does not publish a living budget either, which would also stop the calculation. A newer report may sit behind the school's employment page, which our readers could not open; until one is public, the cost lines on this page are the reliable part, and a candidate should ask the admissions team for the latest class figures before deciding.
The salary you give up while you study
Salary given up, net of the internship
$157,500
| Gross salary not earned | $157,500 |
| Per month away | $7,500 |
Pension contributions and raises you would have had are not counted here.
A small class and a capped scholarship
The class counted in the 2019 report had 58 students; only 3 schools on this site report a smaller one, and no newer figure is published. Partial scholarships reach at most SGD 21,000 of tuition, with no service bond attached, so the lowest possible tuition after an award is SGD 61,840. Tuition is quoted in Singapore dollars and includes the goods and services tax; for a candidate paid in another currency, the converter below uses the ECB rate the site is built on.
A fee or a salary in US dollars
In US dollars
$111,880
| 1 EUR | $1.119 |
ECB reference rate of October 13, 2026. Prices on the ground do not follow exchange rates one for one.
Where SMU stands in our rankings
- #2 of 18 · Working in Asia
Our fit score, reference person earning $90,000 before the MBA (method). Third-party rankings play no part in it. For reference, SMU was ranked 57 in the FT Global MBA 2026.
What the SMU MBA costs
| Item | SGD, and US dollars |
|---|---|
| Tuition, whole program | SGD 82,840 $64,726 |
| Mandatory fees | SGD 600 $469 |
| Living budget | not published |
SMU employment report: Class of 2019
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Graduates who accepted an offer within three months | 80% |
SMU graduates by industry
| Industry, as the school names it | Share | Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Real Estate + Auditing / Accounting + Others | 30% | not published |
| Financial Services | 21% | not published |
| Technology | 19% | not published |
| Consulting | 10% | not published |
| Manufacturing | 10% | not published |
| Healthcare | 10% | not published |
Where SMU graduates went to work
| Region | Share | Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Asia | 97.5% | not published |
| Africa | 2.5% | not published |
SMU graduates by job function
| Function | Share | Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing / Sales | 26% | not published |
| Finance / Accounting | 20% | not published |
| Consulting | 18% | not published |
| Operations / Supply Chains / Logistics | 13% | not published |
| General Management | 10% | not published |
| Technology | 3% | not published |
| Others | 10% | not published |
Employers named by SMU
Accenture Strategy · American Express · Mastercard · Microsoft · OCBC Bank · UOB · PwC · KPMG · Ernst & Young · Johnson & Johnson · SAP Asia · Agoda · Twitter
Names only: the school gives no hire counts.
The SMU class
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| International students | 63% |
| Women | 40% |
| Average age | 30 |
| Average years of work experience | 5.9 |
| GMAT average | 640 |
| Nationalities | 26 |
| Class size | 58 |
Not published by SMU in the documents we read: a living budget for students; a graduate salary. We leave these blank rather than fill them with an estimate.