THE Global University Employability Ranking 2020: France reaches the 2nd rank

The global employability ranking has been designed by Emerging, HR counsel firm, and published exclusively by the Times Higher Education (THE). It is usually topped by American universities (more than 50 institutions in the Top 250). However, French universities and “grandes écoles” show great performance this year: 18 French institutions are ranked among the 250 best, with 9 joining the Top 100.

The best institutions to prepare for employment

With such ranking, France reaches the 2nd place of the global ranking, behind the United States and before Germany, followed by the UK and China, countries that occupy the 4th and 5th rank. The 250 universities which results were analysed indeed cover 43 countries, and “employers voted for institutions both in their own country and worldwide, if they recruit abroad”. So, the ranking defines according to the THE universities considered as the best-fitted to prepare students for employment by recruiters of the best companies.

9 French institutions in the Top 100

There are a few progresses worthy of some attention. CentraleSupélec ends up as leader of the best French institutions and at 22nd rank worldwide, which is a truly long qualitative leap compared to 2019, when it was ranked 44th. Also in the Top 100 are: HEC Paris (down two ranks), Ecole Polytechnique (up 2 ranks), and Paris Sciences et Lettres (up 4 ranks). And still in the Top 100: EM Lyon, Mines Paris Tech, EDHEC Business School, Sorbonne Université, and ESSEC.

The THE also note that “most of the institutions included in the list are located in Paris”. This is partly true, but other institutions ranked are located in other regions if you look closely to the Top 250: besides EM Lyon (36th global rank, 5th in France), you can find Ecole Centrale de Lyon (178th global rank, 16th in France), and SKEMA Business School (240th global rank, 17th in France) owning several campuses in regions such as Lille and Nice.

A closely examined ranking

In 2020, despite the Covid and health crisis, the THE states that “108,225 votes were received by 9,000 operational and international managers in 22 countries”. Those managers voted to assess the employability performance of 6,000 international institutions. In various countries, says the THE, “jobs for graduates are not easy to find, but in European countries such as France, Switzerland and Germany, professional experience is included in the studies programmes”. In any case, the THE says that for five years its employability ranking has become the “2nd most used university ranking by employers”.