Apologies for digging up this old thread but I do feel that as an SMU alumni, I should probably attempt to give an objective stance on the equivalent recognition of SMU's honors system vis-a-vis NTU/NUS honours on a best effort basis. Feel free to give comments or suggestions regarding any points that you may find questionable in my presentation below.
Just a little bit about myself. I've worked at IB middle office for 2 years and very recently, made the switch to the civil service (for various reasons). The question of my remuneration corresponding to my honors thus arose. After bumping my head around a little bit, these are the results of my findings:
B+ grade in NTU/NUS implies a minimum CAP of 4.0/5.0 while a B+ grade in SMU implies a minimum GPA of 3.30/40.
In NTU/NUS, if you get B+ for all your modules, you would get an average CAP of 4.0 and you would qualify for a 2nd Upper Honours.
However in SMU, if you get a B+ for all your modules, you would get an average CAP of 3.30, which is inadequate for a Cum Laude (which requires a 3.40 at least).
The above suggests that:
1) It is inaccurate to compare academic standing of students from SMU to those from NTU/NUS by comparing GPA to CAP numbers since the equivalent GPA/CAP to grading bucket (e.g. A,A-,A+) relationship already differs from the outset.
2) If a comparison must be made, grade buckets would probably provide a more unbiased assessment of a student's academic standing in his cohort since students are bucketed into their grades on a bell curve.
3) If 2) is true, the B+ student in NTU/NUS (who is a 2nd Upper Class Honours graduate) is the equivalent of a B+ student in SMU.
4) An SMU Cum Laude graduate, with the minimum GPA of 3.40, actually has an average grade that is slightly higher than B+. I.e. It follows that the cum laude graduate should also be technically qualified for 2nd Upper Class honours.
5) The above conclusion is based on an assumption that all of the universities grade their students using a bell curve methodology that is consistent across the board. I can't verify if their methodologies are the same, but I'd think it's safe to assume that they won't differ by too much since they are all prominent government funded educational institutions in Singapore and they do have to answer to the government in some way or another.
Some of my civil service peers have had their pay revised upwards after they reflected the above to HR upon receiving their letter of offer. Also, I hope I was clear and unbiased in the above discourse. I just wish to contribute and clear any confusion that may have clouded this topic.
Thanks for reading!