Getting into a university is not just about ensuring access to quality higher education, but also choosing an institute that employers relate with producing candidates that add immense value to the organisations they join. Now a global study conducted by a leading HR consultancy Emerging gives prospective students insight into the universities most leading employers around the world think produce the best employable talent.
Published by Times Higher Education, The Global University Employability Survey 2017 lists 150 international universities on the basis of producing the most employable graduates, as considered by organisations and recruiters around the world.
The top 10 spots are occupied by US universities mostly, but the UK, Germany and Japan each managed to sneak into the first 10 with a spot of their own. California Institute of Technology, commonly known as Caltech, took the top honours, while Harvard was at the number two spot.
During the survey, hundreds of recruiters in 22 countries were taken on board between May and September and asked which universities they felt produced the most employable graduates. One of the most distinct hits was taken by UK universities, with experts mentioning Brexit and the simultaneous rise of Asian universities as factors. The UK had only one, Cambridge University, in the top ten at the fifth spot, which itself dropped one position from fourth in the previous year. Oxford fell to 15th position from previous year’s seventh. Overall, the UK had 10 universities named among the top 150 in the world for graduate employability. On the other hand, China had seven universities named in the list, Japan had five, India had three, South Korea and Taiwan each had four, Singapore and Saudi Arabia each had two, while Russia and the UAE had one institution each in the top 150. Overall, Asian universities grabbed 34 of the total 150 spots in the list, while the US and UK combined accounted for 45 positions.
Considering the results, it is rather heartening to see Asian universities shaking up the established dominance of western educational institutions and finally getting the recognition of the abilities and skills that their graduates possess. Not only is this a acknowledgement of the hard work they have been putting in to provide the global community with top-class human resource, but also a lifeline for aspiring students who can trade a place in these Asian universities nearer to home with high costs and long distances associated with education in the West.
The top 20 universities in terms of graduate employability are listed below. The full list can be seen here.
Rank 2017 | University | Country | Rank 2016 |
1 | California Institute of Technology | United States | 1 |
2 | Harvard University | United States | 3 |
3 | Columbia University | United States | 12 |
4 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | United States | 2 |
5 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 4 |
6 | Boston University | United States | 11 |
7 | Stanford University | United States | 5 |
8 | Technical University of Munich | Germany | 8 |
9 | University of Tokyo | Japan | 10 |
10 | Yale University | United States | 6 |
11 | Princeton University | United States | 9 |
12 | Hong Kong University of Science and Technology | Hong Kong | 13 |
13 | University of Toronto | Canada | 14 |
14 | Peking University | China | 17 |
15 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 7 |
16 | National University of Singapore | Singapore | 15 |
17 | Imperial College London | United Kingdom | 16 |
18 | McGill University | Canada | 18 |
19 | Tokyo Institute of Technology | Japan | 20 |
20 | University of California, Berkeley | United States | 19 |