Employability: France, 2nd most sought-after country

Since 2010, the Global Employability University Ranking and Survey, a worldwide ranking of higher education institutions (universities and “grandes écoles”) based on the employability of their graduates, is created by the higher education human resources consultancy Emerging and published by Times Higher Education. In 2021, over 10,000 international recruiters and managers in 23 countries were consulted to establish the new edition of this ranking.

The importance of the employability criteria

“When it comes to deciding where to study, the employability criterion becomes an increasingly important factor”, so explains THE in its presentation of the 2021 results of its ranking which “shows that employers are increasingly looking for graduates with strong skills rather than focusing on the prestige of the university they attended”.

The ranking is based on a survey counting “118,196 votes from 10,928 international recruiters and managers supervising five or more graduates per year”. Such recruiters and managers could select up to 15 institutions from a list of 2,000 and were asked to give reasons for their votes. In total, universities and schools from 44 countries are thus represented in a ranking that includes the 250 most popular institutions.

France among the countries experimenting momentum

On the leaders’ podium, the United States, France and the United Kingdom share the first three places. Indeed, it’s these three countries that are the best represented in the lit, out of a total of 44 countries. After the United States but ahead of the United Kingdom, France, which is again in second place this year, is according to THE one of the “countries on the rise”.

Based on the total number of votes received, the United States remains at the top of the list, with over 25% of all votes cast, holding 54 of the 250 places. However, with 17 institutions ranked, France managed to overtake the UK by a small margin and retain its second place. In the Top 10 of ranked countries are, in descending order, Germany, China, Canada, Japan, Australia, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

CentraleSupélec leads the Top 10 of French institutions

In total, 17 French institutions have been ranked in the Global University Employability Ranking this year. As THE notes, “the ‘grandes écoles’, which are elite French institutions created to train civil servants and businessmen, are particularly well ranked in the employability ranking”. Nevertheless, THE believes that “business schools also rank highly”.

More precisely, in the French Top 10, is CentraleSupélec, in 22^nd position in the world, which gains 22 places in one year and which benefits from a laudatory comment from THE: “international reputation for excellence” and “graduates who are among the best paid in France”.

And the list continues as follow:

• HEC Paris (24th worldwide);
• Ecole Polytechnique (30th);
• Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris (34th);
• EM Lyon Business School (36th);
• Mines ParisTech (40th);
• EDHEC Business School (59th);
• Sorbonne Université – Sciences (63th);
• ESSEC Business School (80th)
• Université Paris Sud (Université Paris Saclay, 112th).

To know more

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