19 September 2019
September 19th, the British company Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) published a new edition of Graduate Employability Ranking (QS GER). It analyzes the relationship between universities and the employment of their graduates. Top-500 includes 13 Russian universities, and top three of them represents Moscow State University, St. Petersburg State University and MGIMO.
MGIMO took the 1st place in the world according to the indicator “Graduate Employment Rate” which shows the proportion of students working full or part time for a year after graduation.
While putting together the 2019 ranking, QS experts considered approximately 45 thousand employer surveys, the personal files of over 29 thousand of the most famous and successful university graduates, around 150 thousand communications between employers and students online and on campus (at various events such as career days, lectures, master classes) and about 320 thousand internship agreements between institutes and employers. This year data from 758 world universities was assembled and analysed (in 2018 — 660, in 2017 — 600 universities and in 2016 — 300). In all, 500 universities made it into the final list. In total, universities from 73 countries participated in the ranking, including 17 Russian universities, 13 of which appeared in the final top 500 list (in 2018 — 11 universities, in 2017 — 13, and in 2016 — 7).
The pilot project for this ranking was launched in 2015, but it rapidly became popular. QS GER allows, according to its creators, to take a closer look at how universities interact with employers, how they position themselves on the labour market, which university graduates are the most sought-after by employers and have the most prominent careers.
In 2019, MGIMO moved up into the 191-200 category (in 2018 MGIMO was in the range 201–250) in the global QS GER rating and kept its position among the top three Russian universities (after Moscow State University and St. Petersburg State University), improving its performance for a number of indicators. MGIMO came first globally for its graduate employment rate in the first year after graduation, third for the professional achievements of its graduates, sixth in employer surveys and eighth for employers’ participation in the life of the university.
Alongside the criterion «Reputation among employers» which is used in most QS ratings, QS GER also considers parameters such as the professional achievements of its graduates, the depth of the university’s interaction with employers and the proportion of employed graduates.
MGIMO traditionally performs well as regards its communication with employers, as is confirmed by its excellent performance in various national and international ratings, as well as by the audit carried out by QS at the University, following which MGIMO received 5 QS stars, thus becoming the first university in Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and among BRICS countries to achieve such a result. QS analysts noted that MGIMO’s strongest point was its connection with employers and its graduate employment rate, for which the university scored the maximum possible number of points.
— See the MGIMO web-site for russian version
