The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Tsinghua University are Asia’s top universities for generating ultra-wealthy alumni, according to research by Altrata.
The alumni population of NUS contains an estimated 3,400 ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs), defined as people with fortunes of at least US$30 million, the data company said in a report on Wednesday. Tsinghua has produced an estimated 1,400 such graduates.
NUS ranks 17th on a global basis and third on a ranking that excludes US universities, while Tsinghua ties with the University of Manchester for sixth on the non-US ranking but would be outside the top 20 of the overall global ranking, according to the report.
US schools dominate the global list, topped by Harvard University with an estimated 18,000 UHNWIs, or 4 per cent of the world’s estimated population of 483,500 such individuals, the report said. Of the top 20 universities, 17 are in the US, including second-placed University of Pennsylvania with 9,300 UHNW alumni, followed by third-ranked Stanford University with an estimated 8,400 UNHW alumni.
Among non-US schools, the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge top the list, with an estimated 4,900 and 4,700 ultra-wealthy alumni, respectively. They rank sixth and seventh on the all-inclusive global ranking.
The non-US top 20 includes six other Asia-Pacific universities: Peking University, Delhi University and Mumbai University are tied for ninth (along with Canada’s McGill University) with 1,200 UHNW alumni, while the University of Hong Kong, University of New South Wales and University of Sydney are tied for 15th (along with American University of Beirut and London Business School) with 900 ultra-rich graduates.
Banking and finance are the primary professional focus for a quarter of ultra-rich alumni who graduated in the past 20 years, the report said.
Meanwhile, representation in the technology industry almost doubled, with one in 10 wealthy graduates over the past 20 years devoting most of their professional time to tech-related innovation, products and services, Altrata said.
Credit: SCMP
