Dublin City University has been ranked first in Ireland for it’s graduate employment rate, and 23rd in the world, according to the QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2022 released last week.
The graduate employability rate is one of five indicators that measures the proportion of graduates in full or part-time employment within 12 months of graduation.
DCU and the University of Limerick also jumped from a 301-500 overall ranking in 2020 to join the top 200 (191-200) universities in the world for graduate employability.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the disruption it has caused higher education and graduate employability, there were no QS rankings for 2021.
QS, a global higher education analysis firm (Quacquarelli Symonds), gave DCU a location-adjusted Graduate Employment Rate score of 98.7/100.
Welcoming these rankings, Professor Daire Keogh, DCU President stated:
“DCU’s improved ranking as a world leader for graduate employability is a welcome affirmation of our university’s constant focus on ensuring that our students are prepared to succeed in the modern workplace. This has been achieved thanks to the dedication of our staff, the positive engagement of DCU students, and our long track record of productive partnerships with employers.”
“With new initiatives such as our innovative DCU Futures suite of programmes, we will continue to collaborate with the enterprise sector to create opportunities that develop the key skills and attributes which students will need in the workplace of tomorrow,” he added.
DCU also scored particularly high on the Alumni Outcomes metric, increasing its rank from 301+ in 2020 to 218.
For this category, QS studied the world’s most innovative, creative, wealthy, entrepreneurial, and philanthropic people to conclude which universities are producing world-changing graduates.
The 2022 QS Graduate Employability Rankings consider factors such as Employer Reputation, Alumni Outcomes, Partnerships with Employers, Employer-Student Connections, and Graduate Employment rates.
A total of 786 institutions from across the world were included in this year’s rankings.
Trinity College Dublin earned Ireland’s highest Employer Reputation score, which was based on survey responses from 75,000 employers who were asked which institutions their most successful employees had graduated from.
The University of Limerick was ranked as the best in Ireland for the Employer-Student Connection category as it was found to bring more employers onto campus than any other Irish institution.
“With most of Ireland’s ranked institutions either consolidating or improving their position, and with a majority also outperforming their overall QS World University Rankings position, this year’s results – the first since the pandemic began to affect graduate employment opportunities – suggest that Irish universities continue to equip their students well for a testing environment,” Ben Sowter, Director of Research at QS, said.
Jamie Mc Carron
Image Credit: DCU