Now, Indian institutes fall in QS' graduate employability rankings

IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur out of the top 200 global universities with most employable students list

Indian higher education institutes led by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kharagpur and Kanpur have dipped in the latest QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) Graduate Employability Rankings 2018 as compared to last year.

A leading global network and information specialist in the higher education sector, QS has released the latest rankings which provide key information on how successful students are at securing a top job after graduating from these institutes. As against last year where top 300 institutes globally were ranked, this year QS has increased the list to 495 universities.

Not only have four out of the eight Indian institutes seen a dip in their latest rankings, only two Indian institutes — IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi — are in the top 200 list now. From their previous rankings in 2017 of 101-150 band, both IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi fell to 191-200 band.

Other institutes such as IIT Kharagpur and IIT Madras too showed a decline in their positions from 81-90 band and 101-150 band in 2017 to 251-300 and 201-250 band, respectively. IIT Kanpur and the University of Delhi which were ranked in the 201+ band last year were positioned at 301-500 and 201-250 band, respectively.

On the other hand, the University of Mumbai and IISc Bangalore which did not make it to the top 300 graduate employability rankings last year saw themselves being ranked at 201-250 and 301-500 band, respectively.

The QS Graduate Employability Rankings is designed to provide students globally with a tool to compare university performance in terms of graduate employability outcomes and prospects. The rankings give weightage to parameters like employer reputation (30 per cent), alumni outcomes (25 per cent), partnerships with employers per faculty (25 per cent), employer/student connections (10 per cent), and graduate employment rate (10 per cent).

"We introduced a minimal but still-significant recalibration of the weightings we use, aiming to both reduce the reliance on self-reported figures and provide an enhanced normalisation mechanism for the results - necessary, given their global scale. The Alumni Outcomes indicator now carries a weighting of 25 per cent, while the Employer-Student Connections ratio has a reduced weight of 10 per cent. Additionally, the Employer Reputation index reflects the changes recently introduced in the 2018 QS World University Rankings, with the domestic component of the indicator receiving increased weight," QS stated.

QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2018