HSE among Seven Russian Universities in QS Graduate Employability Rankings

The new QS Graduate Employability Rankings reflects the relation between a university’s activities and graduate employment. HSE placed in 201+ group.

Through this ranking, QS aims to establish a new approach to evaluating higher education. Its methodology differs from QS’s institutional rankings. Instead, it involves an assessment of five indicators: a university’s reputation among employers, partnership with employers, alumni outcomes, interaction between employers and the university, and its graduate employment rate.

QS representatives note that the ranking is now being implemented on a trial basis and should be refined over the coming years.

 ‘The idea of this ranking is definitely positive: both graduates and prospective students need to know whether he/she will be able to find a job after graduation, whether his/her profession will be in demand on the global labour market,’ — says Liudmila Solntseva, Director of the Ranking Information Centre. She added: ‘It’s not the first attempt to develop an employability rating by ranking agencies, although it is difficult to find any successful examples. This is most likely the result of a lack of measurable indicators and nontransparent accounting.’

For example, the simplest indicator is the graduate employment rate. It is important that all ranking participants provide comparable data (which is almost unachievable).

‘In most international universities, there are staff experts who systematically work with graduates. In Russian universities, this type of work is still in its initial stage, and universities are only starting to develop this service, — says Solntseva, noting: ‘Of course, the participation of universities in such rankings encourages them to establish proper accounting approaches in conjunction with an entire process for providing services to students/graduates, as well as provide support to partnerships with employers.’

According to HSE’s institutional monitoring, the percentage of graduates employed last year came to 93%. For instance, HSE conducts career, education and recruiting events with the direct support of potential employers, such as seminars, workshops, trainings, job fairs, internships, and roundtable discussions. In the 2015/16 academic year, around 530 career events, supported by more than 400 employers, were held at HSE.