UCT graduates remain among the world's most employable, ranking system finds

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The QS Graduate Employability Rankings provide insight into the employability outcomes and prospects of an institution’s graduates at a global level. This is the second consecutive time that UCT has placed within the top 100.

“I am delighted to see that UCT has again ranked among the best institutions in the world for the quality of its graduates,” says vice-chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng. “This result reflects the calibre of education students receive at UCT and how sought-after they are by employers.”

The university maintained the leading position among South African institutions and on the continent despite a small drop of four places compared with the previous rankings published in 2019. The QS Graduate Employability Rankings were not published last year but deferred to this year.

To produce these annual rankings, QS considers five indicators with different weightings, although it acknowledges that its methodology – as with any other university ranking – cannot encompass the full complexities of graduate employability.

The indicators are:

• Employer reputation (30%): how well reputed the institution is among employers. This indicator is based on more than 75,000 responses to the QS Employer Survey, which asks employers to identify the most competent, innovative and effective graduates.
• Alumni outcomes (25%): whether the institution is nurturing high-achievers. This indicator looks at the alumni on more than 150 lists of high achievers.
• Partnerships with employers (25%): how connected the institution is to employers. This indicator captures the number of collaborative publications with global companies and work placement-related partnerships.
• Employer–student connections (10%): the extent of employer presence on campus. This is a measure of the number of companies that have been present at events on campus and that have promoted themselves on university websites.
• Graduate employment rate (10%): the proportion of recent graduates who are employed. This indicator considers the proportion of graduates employed within one year of graduation (excluding those who opt to study further).

UCT performed best in the indicators for alumni outcomes and graduate employment rate.

In alumni outcomes, UCT scored 90.3 out of a possible 100, ranking 37th globally. This recognises the university’s strength in producing distinguished achievers considered to be “wealthy, successful and powerful”.

The university placed 58th for the graduate employment rate indicator with a score of 90.2.