Tops for employability: U of T grads ranked first in Canada, 14th in world
Published: October 30, 2013
A high profile survey of the world’s universities that examines the employability of their graduates places the University of Toronto first in Canada and 14th in the world.
The third annual Global Employability Survey, released October 28, used international executives and recruiters to create a profile of the ideal university graduate and the ideal university for producing such a potential employee.
Designed by the French education consulting firm, Emerging, and executed by Trendence, a German market research company, the survey examined the responses of 2,700 recruiters in 20 countries and polled 2,300 top executives in 30 countries before ranking 150 universities around the world.
“This ranking is a testament to the remarkable accomplishments of the students who come to U of T from across Canada and around the world,” said Professor Cheryl Regehr, provost and vice-president of the University. “We know that our students perform well when they leave the university and enter the working world. It’s good to see their hard work and creativity recognized by recruiters and employers around the world.”
U of T, which had placed 24th on the survey in 2012, climbed to 14th place, followed in Canada by McGill University at 30th place. Also in the top 100 are: UBC at 51st place, University of Montreal at 59th place and McMaster University at 73rd place.
In an interview with the New York Times, a spokesperson for Emerging said the survey reflects the fact that recruiters now scout internationally for employees and increasingly recognize institutions that focus on producing graduates with a broad set of skills.
“It’s a complete globalization of the system,” said Laurent Dupasquier, associate director of Emerging.
Earlier this month, academic rankings released by the National Taiwan University (NTU) placed the University of Toronto eighth in the world and first in Canada for scientific performance. The U of T and University of Oxford (ranked ninth) were the only non-American institutions to place in the top 10 of the NTU rankings.
Those rankings were based on indicators representing three different criteria of scientific performance - research productivity, research impact and research excellence - and included a variety of scientific fields, including social sciences (ranked seventh in the world) and clinical medicine (ranked fifth).
They followed on the heels of two other high profile academic rankings in which U of T also led the country. The 2013 QS World University Ranking, released September 10th, ranked U of T 17th in the world and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, released October 2nd, ranked U of T 20th in the world.
