NTU Staff Donated Over 20,000 Days of Unused Annual Leave Worth $10.25 Million to Students

This year has fed us more negative news than we can take.

We keep telling 2020 that our metaphorical stomach is about to burst, but it continues to feed us bad news about the coronavirus outbreak, lost jobs, and postponed air travel bubbles.

Fortunately, I only have a big bowl of wholesome for you today.

NTU Staff Donated Over 20,000 Days of Unused Annual Leave Worth $10.25 Million to Students

While many would have cashed out, employees at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) chose to donate over 20,000 days worth of unused leave towards student aid and endowments.

According to NTU, the 20,145 days of annual leave are worth S$10.25 million.

Typically, unused leave is either converted into money, carried forward, or forfeited.

Here at Goody Feed, all leave is forfeited whether we use it or not.

However, 1,821 faculty and staff members at NTU chose to donate their unused leave instead, with each worker contributing an average of 11 days.

The donation was part of an opt-in exercise that gave employees the option to voluntarily redeem their unused earned annual leave value, based on each individual’s salary rates.

They could then donate the money to an NTU fund of their choice, the university said.

This helped them put their unused leave “towards a good cause”.

Depending on their employment scheme and length of service, NTU employees are given between 21 and 42 days of annual leave.

They will have the option to donate their unutilised leave again in October 2021, when the next opt-in exercise is held.

As NTU senior vice president (administration) Tan Aik Na pointed out, some students’ parents have lost their jobs or had their income affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“So, it is doubly important during the pandemic for us to rally our support … to help these students,” she said.

$2 Million Fund Launched to Help Students

But that’s not all the university did to help its students this year.

In April, NTU launched a $2 million fund to support students who are Singapore citizens and permanent residents.

The fund will help to alleviate the financial burden of students from needy families, such as those who come from households whose monthly income per capita is $690 or less.

Those facing emergency situations will also get help, including students who lost part-time jobs that funded their education, as well as a loss of income to the breadwinner in their family.

Eligible students are able to receive an interest-free advance of up to S$1,500, which they have to reimburse to the university within two years after graduation.

Since March, both NUS and NTU students have also been allowed to take more modules on an ungraded basis, to ease their anxieties about their studies during the pandemic.

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