IIT-Bombay tops QS Graduate Employability Rankings in India, rank improved

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay is the best institution in India for career-focused students, according to 2022 QS Graduate Employability Rankings released on Thursday. The institute moved up to the 101-110 group, from 111-120 group in 2020.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay is the best institution in India for career-focused students, according to 2022 QS Graduate Employability Rankings released on Thursday. The institute moved up to the 101-110 group, from 111-120 group in 2020.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay is the best institution in India for career-focused students, according to 2022 QS Graduate Employability Rankings released on Thursday. The institute moved up to the 101-110 group, from 111-120 group in 2020. (Pratik Chorge/HT PHOTO)

“India’s national employability leader — those implementing the nation’s strongest employability processes and achieving the strongest employability outcomes — IIT Bombay,” said QS Quacquarelli Symonds, global higher education analysts, in a statement.

According to more than 50,000 employers surveyed by QS, IIT-Bombay produces India’s highest calibre of graduates. It achieves the nation’s leading score for QS’s Employer Reputation indicator (73.9/100, 70th globally).

IIT-Bombay is followed by its sister campus in Delhi, which has jumped from the 151-160 band in 2020 to the 131-140 group in 2022. IIT-Madras, too, has risen from the 171-180 band to the 151-160 category. These are the three Indian universities that ranked among the global top 200, with all three having improved their position over the last year. These are also the top three universities in India according to the World University Rankings released by QS in June this year.

The QS Graduate Employability Rankings offer a granular comparative examination of the work universities are doing to cultivate propitious pathways into high-quality employment, said QS. Universities are rated on partnerships with employers (including internships), the number of sectoral leaders among their alumni, the frequency with which employers are present on campus, and a location-adjusted graduate employment rate.

Meanwhile, the University of Mumbai (MU) maintained its rank in the 250-300 band. University of Delhi and University of Calcutta fell further down in their rankings.

Three Indian universities achieved top-100 scores for QS’s Alumni Outcomes metric, which measures the number of highly successful business leaders, philanthropists, creatives, high-wealth individuals, and entrepreneurs produced by each university. University of Delhi ranked 21st globally and first in India for this metric with a score of 96/100.

“IIT-Delhi is happy to jump by 20 places in the QS Graduate Employability rankings. We have been consistently improving our rankings in both domestic and international rankings in the past few years. We have taken various measures in the past few years and they are beginning to show their impact,” said V Ramgopal Rao, director, IIT-Delhi.

However, Indian universities underperformed in QS’s Partnerships with Employers indicator, which captures the number of research engagements and work-placement partnerships formalised by each institution. Only one Indian university – IIT-Bombay – achieved a top-200 score for this metric.

Subhasis Chaudhuri, director of IIT-Bombay, said, “Training at IIT-Bombay emphasises as learning outcomes on developing skills for analytical problem solving, capability to address unseen problems and an appreciation for the constraints that beset a specific problem. These are the terms of endearment for any technology-oriented company. Hence I am not at all surprised at this ranking. As a matter of fact, I expect the rank to be within top-50 if it is truly measured.”

IIT-Madras achieved India’s highest location-adjusted Graduate Employment Rate score (100/100, fourth globally). It is the only Indian institution to achieve a top-50 score for this metric.

Ben Sowter, Director of Research at QS, said, “With students becoming increasingly conscious of the competitiveness of the global graduate jobs market and of the ever-increasing financial costs of their educational investment, it has become correspondingly crucial that independent data of this sort is available to them, so as to inform evidence-based decisions about their educational futures.”

“The data that contributes to this ranking shows that Indian universities are consistently producing high numbers of entrepreneurs, business leaders, and other highly successful individuals. However, with consistently low scores in our Partnerships with Employers indicator, it is also clear that India’s higher education leadership must strive to create stronger links with industry, facilitating more employer-student connection opportunities on campus,” Sowter added.