IISc, IIT-Delhi in Top 100 in Global University Employability Rankings

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi are two Indian institutions that made it to the top 100 list of the Global Employability Ranking 2018 while the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) is within top 150 in the ranking that was released Nov. 15.

The IISc is ranked 28 globally improving its position by one place and IIT Delhi, which made its debut this year, is ranked 53. The IIMA, which is ranked India’s best B-School, made its entry for the first time and is ranked 144. The annual ranking, which is designed by French HR consultancy Emerging and published by the ‘Times Higher Education,’ ranks top 150 institutions worldwide for employability, based on a global survey of around 7,000 recruitment and international managers from major businesses, PTI reported.

“India’s performance in the employability ranking has been somewhat inconsistent since the list was first launched in 2011. It still only counts three universities in the top 150, suggesting it’s struggling to make the reputational ground with employers that some other Asian nations have achieved,” said Simon Baker, Data Editor at Times Higher Education.

Although the ranking shows that while India has made some progress to its representation and institutional positions in the table since the list was first launched in 2011, it is yet to keep pace with advances made by other countries, both regionally and globally.

“There is some solid improvement this year for India, however. In the 2018 global listing, the Indian Institute of Science rises one position to 28th, while the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi soars this year to place global 53rd, from 145 last year,” the report noted.

American universities continue to dominate the ranking with 34 universities in the top 150 this year, compared to 55 in 2011, with six universities in the top 10 – a drop of one from seven last year. British universities have held onto their positions in this year’s ranking with 1o institutions, just like last year.

Harvard University leads the list, followed by the California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Last year, Harvard was ranked second while the California Institute of Technology was at the top. The University of Cambridge rose one place to rank fourth while Stanford moved two notches up to rank fifth.

One interesting data to come out from the ranking is that the global employability gap is narrowing and both American and British universities are struggling to keep pace with global competitors in preparing students for the modern workplace.

Also, one interesting point in the 2018 list is that while most countries value soft skills like collaboration and communication, the Chinese prefer harder and practical skills for their students.

To produce the 2018 ‘Global University Employability Ranking,’ an online survey was done by two panels of participants from May to September 2018. The panels included respondents from 22 countries like Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Sweden, the UK, and the U.S., PTI reported.