NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
NUS Business School
Ph.D. Program
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
Dean’s Message
The NUS business school aims to build an intellectual family that is characterized by
its intellectual curiosity and devotion to making a difference in society through
teaching and research. In our doctoral programmes, we seek out students who believe
in taking advantage of the enormous research opportunities that exist in Asia to create
knowledge that makes basic contributions, that solves research questions in this region
and that contributes to the world’s progress.
As the dean, I whole heartedly welcome you to consider joining our intellectual family;
the NUS would most devotedly support and facilitate your intellectual endeavor.
Sincerely yours,
Bernard Yeung
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
ABOUT NUS BUSINESS SCHOOL
 ONE OF THE TOP SCHOOLS IN ASIA
Forty years of education experience in
business
Top 100 business school globally and top
3 in Asia Pacific area
Top 20 by Times Higher Education
Recently ranked top 30 globally in
EMBA program by Financial Times
 ONE OF THE TOP RESEARCH SCHOOLS IN
ASIA
UTD ranking of 50 worldwide; No.2 in
Asia Pacific
Faculty members hold doctorates from
the best universities in the world such as
Harvard, Stanford, MIT and Chicago.
Regularly published in top tier journals,
hold membership of editorial board of
leading journals
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
ABOUT NUS BUSINESS SCHOOL
 WORLD CLASS FACILITIES AND
RESOURCES
New S$70 million NUS business
school building in 2009
Campus-wide wireless connection
Excellent computing facilities
provided to doctoral students –
individual desktop, more advanced
computing facilities, such as workstation
Online access to most of the major
journals, databases, and computer
programs
Software purchase includes GAUSS,
MATLAB, SAS, Mathematica and SPSS
Hon Sui Sen Memorial Library,
Central Library and Chinese Library
.
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
Strength of the Research Culture & Quality
of the Research Output
The School believes that it has a sound research culture,
and backs this with very strong research
funding support and a reasonable research environment.
This reflects the major effort made in the last
decade to convert itself from a teaching oriented school to a
research intensive school. This shift has
been generally successful, albeit slower than intended.
BIZ faculty are expected to publish in leading journals and
conference proceedings in their respective
fields, and are increasingly successful in doing so.
The University of Texas Dallas ranking of Business Schools
on Research Productivity places the NUS Business School
second in Asia-Pacific and fifty first in the world. The same
rankings suggest a very positive trajectory for the School’s
research. These efforts have been reflected in increasing
publications in the very top tier of academic publications.
To encourage high quality publications, the School has a
narrow set of journals that it recognizes as Tier
1 or Tier 2. While recognizing the tiering of high quality
journals by other disciplines, the School provides
extra recognition to the 22 Tier 1 journals and 39 Tier 2
journals in its list.
Tier 1
European Journal of Operational Research; Journal of Applied
Psychology; Journal of Financial
Economics; Journal of Marketing Research; Management Science;
Mathematical Programming;
Operations Research; Organization Science; Strategic Management
Journal; The Journal of
Business; International Journal of Production Research
Tier 2
China Economic Review; Harvard Business Review; Information &
Management; Journal of Banking
& Finance; Journal of Business Venturing; Journal of Global
Optimization; Journal of international
Business Studies; Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science;
Omega-International Journal of
Management Science; Operations Research Letters; Marketing Letters
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
Your Home Away from Home...
Graduate Student Apartments
The University has 200 Graduate Student Apartments (GSA) located in Prince George's Park Residences.
The apartments are furnished with beds, mattresses, wardrobes, study tables, book shelves and fans. You are required to provide your
own pillow and bed linen (international students may choose to purchase these items after arrival in Singapore). Kitchen and dining areas
are equipped with basic cooking appliances and a refrigerator. Residents will have to provide their own cooking utensils, crockery and
cutlery. Laundry machines are available within the residence.
NUS has also worked with EM Services to prioritize allocation of accommodation places at yo:HA @ 190 Hostel to NUS students. The
hostel block consists of 49 air-conditioned units and 50 non air-conditioned units which are privately managed by EM Services.
Each unit has a living room, kitchen, toilet, shower and 2 bedrooms which can accommodate 4 occupants on twin-sharing basis.
If you have any further questions, you may email stu_accom@nus.edu.sg
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
PhD Opportunities in Biz
Business Policy (Strategy and Business Economies)
Decision Sciences (Operations Management and Management
Science)
Finance
Marketing Management
Organization Behavior
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
Why study Accounting?
Ever wonder how accounting policies impact a firms profits and whether
they are manipulated by managers or not, or how managers
compensation is benchmarked, or how do accounting information
translate into share prices, then you should study accounting.
Some questions that are commonly asked in accounting are:
•How do managers make accounting choice decisions?
• Do managers manipulate earnings and what is their impact on firm
value?
• What is the role of auditors in providing high quality accounting
information to the stock market?
• What is the role of accounting information in determining cost of capital
and fundamental value of the firm?
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
MAJOR RESEARCH AREAS OF FACULTY
IN DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTING
-Financial accounting
-How do firms chose accounting policy to determine
corporate profits, and what is the role of managerial
discretion in making such choices.
-Auditing
-What is the audit quality, how can it be measured, what
determines audit prices and is there a relation between audit
market competition and fees and quality of the audit.
-Managerial accounting
-The role of budgets and managers forecast accuracy, how
managerial discretion impacts performance vested stock
options.
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
Why Study Strategy and Business
Policy?
How do firms chose which target to chase in a merger and
acquisition?
Which technologies diffuse into the economy and how can a firm
strategically position itself to take advantage of it?
How do firms store and transmit knowledge?
How do firms differentiate themselves in a competitive market
place?
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
MAJOR RESEARCH AREAS OF FACULTY
IN DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS POLICY
– Applied Economics
– Economic Policy and Planning
– International Economics and Trade
– International and Asia-Pacific Business
– Strategic Management and Corporate Planning
– Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship
– Management of Technology
– Business Law
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
Why Study Decision Sciences ?
How do firms optimize their supply chain?
How do firms optimize their service activities and management
processes?
How do firms link production with procurement especially
electronic procurement?
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
MAJOR RESEARCH AREAS OF FACULTY
IN DEPARTMENT OF DECISION
SCIENCES
– Manufacturing Systems
– Logistics/Transportation Management
– Production Planning and Control Systems
– Quality Management
– Information Systems Planning
– Database Management
– Queuing Systems
– Inventory Management
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
Why Study Marketing Management?
How do consumers perceive different products and decide which
products to buy?
How do firms determine the best way to communicate the
messages about their products to consumers?
How do firms acquire and retain consumers?
How do firms determine policies to maximize customer
experiences?
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
MAJOR RESEARCH AREAS OF FACULTY
IN DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING
– Modeling Consumer Choice Behavior
– Game Theoretic Analysis of Marketing Strategies
– Services Marketing
– Advertising and Promotion
– Marketing Research and New Product Development
– International and Export Marketing
– Industrial Marketing and Retailing
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
Why study Finance?
If you are curious about the workings of the financial markets and how
firms manage their finances, then you should study finance.
Some questions that are asked are:
•Do prices in financial markets reflect the rational decisions of investors
or are they strongly influenced by the psychological biases (or sentiment)
of investors?
•Are stock price changes correlated across markets?
•How can the risks of a portfolio of assets be modeled optimally?
•How do firms raise and manage their capital?
•What is all the fuss about liquidity that newspapers have been talking
about recently?
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
MAJOR RESEARCH AREAS OF FACULTY
IN DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE
-Corporate finance
-How do firms decide on the “optimal mix” of financing? What
factors affect their financing costs? Do firms time the market?
-Asset pricing
-How are market values of stock and bonds estimated? How does
the process of arbitrage work?
-Derivatives
-What are derivatives, and how are they priced? Do firms use
derivatives to manage their financial risks or speculate in financial
markets?
-Market Microstructure
-How does the organization of financial markets affect trading costs,
liquidity, price discovery, and investor behavior?
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
Why study Management &
Organisation?
Are Leaders born or made?
How can Organizations facilitate employee’s “Work/Life
Balance”?
What are “Virtual Organizations”? How to create optimal
incentive schemes in such organizations?
How should firms devise their Human Resource Management
policy in the ear of Globalization?
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
MAJOR RESEARCH AREAS OF FACULTY
IN DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT
AND ORGANISATION
– Work Attitudes and Career Development
– Occupational Stress Management
– Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations
– Comparative Management
– Women in Management and Expatriate Managers
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
Why do a PhD ?
Are you are curious about how to rigorously answer the questions posed
before?
Learn:
The theory related to the previous questions and more
How to test these theories
Draw inferences from these tests
Achieve
Become a professor at a leading business school
Work in the finance industry in technically challenging jobs
Modeling jobs in investment banking
Analyst’s job leading consulting / market research firms
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
Improvement in Student Placement
PhD Program Placement (2004-2005)
PhD Students
Institutions
Irene Ng Cheng Leng
(Marketing)
Associate Professor
School of Business & Economics, University of Exeter, UK
Grace Lee Chau Chin
(Management & Organisation)
Lecturer
Department of M&O (NUS)
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
Improvement in Student Placement
PhD Program Placement (2005-2006)
PhD Students
Institution
Lan Luh Luh
(Business Policy)
Associate Professor
Department of Business Policy (NUS)
Tan Boon Seng
(Business Policy)
Assistant Professor
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Patricia Chew Yee Peng
(Marketing)
Lecturer
SIM University, Singapore
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
Improvement in Student Placement
PhD Program Placement (2006-2007)
PhD Students
Their whereabouts
Ajay Singh Gaur
(Business Policy)
Assistant Professor
Old Dominion University, USA
Qiu Cheng
(Marketing)
Assistant Professor
University of Hong Kong
Zheng Huan
(Decision Sciences)
Assistant Professor
Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai
Jiang Hao
(Finance)
Assistant Professor of Finance
RSM Erasmus University, The Netherlands
Feng Shanfei
(Marketing)
Lecturer
Monash University
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
Improvement in Student Placement
On-going Students on Job Market who secured job positions
On-Going PhD students
Job Secured
Zhou Yunxia
(Finance & Accounting)
Assistant Professor
University of Queensland
Sankalp Chaturvedi
(Management & Organisation)
Assistant Professor
Tanaka Business School
Imperial College London
(with Sept 2008)
Shirish Chandra Srivastava
(Decision Sciences)
Assistant Professor
HEC Paris
(joining Sep 2008)
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
FINANCIAL AID
Chart A :Revised Research Scholarship Stipends as of 01 March 2008
Stipends
RS Pre-PhD QE
RS Post-PhD QE
 Financial aid for four years is normal. Fifth year financial aid
is based on performance. Financial aid for attending conferences
is liberal. Additional funds from tutoring or doing TA / RA work
Singapore Citizen
$2,300.00
$2,800.00
Singapore Permanent Resident
$2,200.00
$2,700.00
 NUS Research Scholarship
The increased of stipend will take effect from 01 March
2008.
 Refer to Chart A for new stipend
Ph.D. students (4 years)
International Student
$2,000.00
$2,500.00
Chart B: Revised Stipends for PhD Holders
 Lee Kong Chian Graduate (LKC) Scholarship
 $3,300 per month (Refer to Chart B for revised stipend
for LKC holders)
 Includes book , air travel, lap-top allowance
 President Graduate Fellowships
(PGF) Scholarship
 To attract very strong applicants, the PGF will be
converted from a ‘top-up’ to a Fellowship with full stipend
Refer to Chart C for revised stipend for PGF Holders
 Tuition Fees Subsidy
 Approx $5,000 per year
For more details, kindly refer to
http://www.nus.edu.sg/registrar/sfau/schemes-gdscholarshipawards.html
LKC
Stipends
Singapore Citizen
$3,300.00
Singapore Permanent Resident
$3,300.00
International Student
$3,300.00
Chart C: Revised Stipends for PhD Holders
PGF
Stipends
Singapore Citizen
$3,300.00
Singapore Permanent Resident
$3,200.00
International Student
$3,000.00
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
SCHEMES TO RECOGNIZE
GOOD PERFORMERS
 Top-up of $500 per month for students who passed Qualifying Exams
 Graduate Student Researcher / Teaching Assistant schemes
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
HOW TO START THE PROCESS
Apply to the NUS Business School
http://www.bschool.nus.edu/Programs/PhD/home.htm
Take the
GMAT / GRE
TOEFL & TSE & TWE
IELTS
Get copies of transcripts
Get recommendation letters from faculty
Think carefully about the essay you want to write
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
PROGRAM STRUCTURE
 FULL-TIME PROGRAM
 PROGRAM DURATION: 4 -5 YEARS
 Coursework (Year 1 & 2)
 Preparatory Classes of 3 weeks will commence prior the start of the
semester
Summer Paper: All first year students (starting from the AY06/07 cohort)
will be required to submit a summer paper at the end of their study in
Year 1
Qualifying Exams (End of Year 2)
 Thesis Writing, Submission and Defense (Year 3 & beyond)
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
RESEARCH REQUIREMENTS
1st year summer paper
With a professor and topic of your choice
Working papers
Thesis proposal in the third year
Oral defense
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
MINIMUM PROGRAM
REQUIREMENTS
Cap maintenance at 4.0
Pass qualifying exams at the end of the 2nd year
Do your proposal defense before the middle of the fourth year
Be on the job market in the 4th year barring which go in the
5th year
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
APPLICATION TIMELINE
Application deadline
15 Nov (online application)
31 Jan (paper application)
Notify students who are short-listed
for interviews
Mid Mar
Interviews (Face to face / Phone)
End Mar / Early Apr
Results of interviews
End Apr
Send offers letters
May
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
CONTACT US
•Websites http://phdmgt.nus.edu.sg
Email us your enquiries
 phdenquiry@nus.edu.sg
•Call us at:
 65-6516 4418 (Mdm Hamidah Rabu)
 65-6516 4417 (Ms Lim Cheow Loo)
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
3D EXPERIENCE
View the video clips for yourselves:
http://www.bschool.nus.edu/Media/video.htm
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NUS Business School Ph.D. Program
Welcome to
NUS Business School!
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