UCD number 1 in Ireland in QS World University Employability Rankings
Posted 19 September, 2019
For the third year in a row, University College Dublin is ranked number one in Ireland for graduate employability by (opens in a new window)QS World University Rankings. UCD is ranked 78 in the world.
According to QS, “UCD leads the national table by virtue of the work it has done to forge work-placement partnerships and researcher partnerships with employers”.
To evaluate each institution’s ability to enhance graduate employability, QS use five indicators: Employer Reputation, Alumni Outcomes, Partnerships with Employers, Employer-Student Connections, and Graduate Employment Rate. These indicators are used to rank the world’s top 500 universities, representing 73 locations. UCD is particularly strong in the area of industry and employer partnerships.
Ben Sowter, Director of Research at QS said:
“We’re conscious that budgetary constraints have had a detrimental impact on the performance of the Irish higher education sector in our more research-focused rankings. However, this ranking offers a different lens, and a different narrative. When we focus on how well Irish universities are preparing their graduates for an ever-more-challenging job market, the results will make far more pleasing reading for those invested in Irish higher education. In particular, UCD has reiterated its ability to nurture not just alumni who can get a job – but who can turn those jobs into highly-successful careers, across a variety of fields and sectors.
UCD and TCD achieve high ranks primarily due to the number of outstandingly successful alumni they have nurtured. QS’s Alumni Outcomes indicator uses educational history data for just under 30,000 highly successful individuals to identify which universities can count field-leading graduates among their alumni. For this indicator, TCD ranks 32nd globally, while UCD ranks 87th.”
Commenting on the Graduate Employability Rankings, the President of UCD, Professor Andrew Deeks said:
“Preparing our graduates to thrive in present and future societies is a central tenet of our strategy. We provide an educational experience that defines best practice through our purpose-built learning environment, combining traditional research methods, specialist skills, and new technologies to develop deep subject knowledge as well as transferable skills.
We place a strong focus on responding to the opportunities and challenges of digital and communications technology that are the transforming our society. We are a university of the future: connected and connecting, engaged and engaging, committed to a sustainable future built on a healthy biosphere.
We work hard to strengthen industry collaboration and partnerships with employers and these are important factors in the measure of employability in these rankings.”
By Eilis O'Brien, UCD University Relations
