QS Quacquarelli Symonds has released the pilot edition of their new Graduate Employability Rankings. Designed to provide new insight into how universities are preparing their students for employment, they show Stanford University leading the way.
The first eight places on the pilot rankings are occupied by universities from the UK and the US, cementing the position these countries enjoy as producers of employable graduates. Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT, which ranks top of the QS World University Rankings, comes second, while Harvard University completes the dominant US triumvirate. The most successful university for graduate employability neither in the UK nor the US is China’s Tsinghua University (9th). France’s Ecole Polytechnique ParisTech completes the top ten while The University of Sydney (14th ) is the top-ranked Australian institution in this ranking.
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QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2016
Top 15
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2016 Rank
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Institution
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Country
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1
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Stanford University |
United States
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2
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) |
United States
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3
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Harvard University |
United States
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4
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University of Cambridge |
United Kingdom
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5
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Yale University |
United States
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6
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University of Oxford |
United Kingdom
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7
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Princeton University |
United States
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8
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University of California, Berkeley (UCB) |
United States
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9
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Tsinghua University |
China
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10
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Ecole Polytechnique ParisTech |
France
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11
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Cornell University |
United States
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12
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University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) |
United States
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13
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University of Pennsylvania |
United States
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14
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The University of Sydney |
Australia
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15
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Peking University |
China
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The QS Graduate Employability Rankings are the result of an extensive research project that began operation in October 2014. It saw detailed consultation with both students and employers, and is designed to provide a new approach to the increasingly important issue of graduate employability. This process saw QS choosing five key criteria that illuminate how successful universities are in making their graduates employable.
These criteria are: the reputation a university has among employers (weighted at 30%), alumni outcome (20%), employer partnerships (25%), employer presence on campus (15%), and graduate employment rate (10%). QS’s desire to produce a new rankings, with a new methodology, is based on the desire to provide students with a rankings that went beyond graduate employment rates. Though one important feature of the employability picture, they do not allow fruitful cross-country comparison, and thus a new, more insightful methodology is necessary.
The new methodology takes into account not simply the end product – whether a student is employed – but how successful a university is in creating a process conducive to that end product. It allows students to understand precisely how a university succeeds in making them employable – the opportunities they provide, the networks they create, and the reputation they have among employers.
Though this ranking remains a pilot edition only, QS aims for this new ranking to enhance the dialogue around measuring graduate employability. In seeking ever-greater participation from universities, employers, and students alike, the hope is that all parties will better understand the part they can play in creating a thriving employment market. The pilot edition can be found at www.iu.qs.com.