The University of the Arts Singapore (UAS) and its founding member LASALLE College of the Arts (LASALLE), celebrated a historic milestone today with its inaugural postgraduate Convocation. The ceremony saw 52 pioneering students from LASALLE being conferred Master of Arts (MA) degrees by UAS, becoming the first cohort of postgraduates to receive degrees from Singapore’s first arts university.
Held at the Singapore Airlines Theatre at LASALLE, the Convocation marked a major step forward in advancing postgraduate arts education in Singapore. The graduating cohort spans a wide range of disciplines, including Arts and Cultural Leadership, Arts Pedagogy and Practice, Asian Art Histories, Creative Writing, Design and Fine Arts. This Convocation also marks the first graduates from LASALLE’s MA Arts and Ecology programme.
Guest of Honour and LASALLE board member, Mr Robert Michael Tomlin, delivered an address and presented the LASALLE Award for Academic Excellence to the top postgraduate student of the cohort.
Professor Kwok Kian Woon, Vice-Chancellor, UAS, highlighted the significance of the occasion: “As Singapore’s first arts university, this inaugural postgraduate Convocation marks a milestone for the UAS alliance and the arts and education landscape. It reflects the maturity of a community of artists and designers who bring together practice, pedagogy, scholarship, and leadership. In a world transformed by the unprecedented speed, scope, and scale of change, these graduates will strengthen communities and contribute significantly to our society and the region.”
Professor Steve Dixon, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, UAS and President, LASALLE, said: “LASALLE’s postgraduates are a tremendously diverse, dynamic cohort of critical thinkers and changemakers, who are poised not only to lead the cultural industries but to make a meaningful impact across all sectors of society. In a time when creative leadership is one of the most in-demand skills, I am confident that the rigour and depth instilled by an arts postgraduate education will stand this cohort in excellent stead wherever they go next.”
Among the graduates was Chin Yuqin, also known as Casey, who received the LASALLE Award for Academic Excellence. Casey is an artist, writer, and art educator whose deep interest in Asian-centered art led her to LASALLE’s MA Asian Art Histories programme.
Casey has exhibited art in London and Venice, as well as published writing in anthologies including Other Worlds and Good Girls Bad Ends. Her research centres on monsters and how they operate as cultural constructs within mythologies, histories and the world today. Currently pursuing an internship at an art gallery, Casey is concurrently working on her own creative projects and looks forward to making a difference in the cultural landscape after graduation.
MA Design graduate Muhammad Hairul Bin Ab Latiff’s practice-based research reimagines the teaching and transmission of Dikir Barat—a traditional Malay art form that combines rhythm, poetry and collective expression—through design-led approaches. Working with the community, he has designed a systemic pedagogical experience incorporating emerging technology.
Graduating from LASALLE’s MA Arts and Ecology programme, Pauline Lim Poh Ning is a multidisciplinary artist and fashion designer whose work interrogates the intersections of fashion, ecology and cultural memory. Pauline’s work explores low-waste techniques and experimental draping, allowing her practice to physically interrogate how cultural memory influences our culture of consumption and waste.
The ceremony also featured a performance by LASALLE’s BA (Hons) Musical Theatre alumni, reflecting the creative spirit of the university. The Convocation affirms UAS and LASALLE’s commitment to nurturing a new generation of forward-looking creative practitioners, researchers and leaders for an evolving global creative economy.
