Waterloo rises in employability rankings

The University of Waterloo has risen to 24^th in the world and top 5 per cent among participating institutions for the 2022 QS Graduate Employability Rankings. With an overall improvement of one spot from 2020 (no rankings were released in 2021), Waterloo saw year-over-year gains across all indicators including:

1. #2 in Canada and 69^th in the world for employer reputation (from 78^th) — Based on more than 75,000 responses asking employers to identify those institutions from which they source as the most competent, innovative and effective graduates.
2. #2 in Canada and 43^rd in the world for alumni outcomes (from 49^th) — More than 40,000 of the world’s most innovative, creative, wealthy, entrepreneurial and/or philanthropic individuals were asked to establish which universities are producing world-changing graduates.
3. #2 in Canada and 61^st in the world for employer/student connections (from 69^th) — Comprised of two parts, this indicator establishes which universities are collaborating successfully with global companies to produce citable, transformative research, while also considering work-placement related partnerships that are reported by institutions and validated by the QS research team.
4. #2 in Canada and 16^th in the world for partnerships with employers (from 19^th) —This indicator involves summing the number of distinct employers who are actively present on a university’s campus, providing motivated students with an opportunity to network and acquire information in a recent 12-month period.
5. #1 in Canada and 74^th in the world for graduate employment rate (from 94^th) — Measuring the proportion of graduates in full or part-time employment within 12 months of graduation to gain an understanding of how successful universities are at nurturing employability.

This year, 786 institutions were included in QS rankings’ evaluations, up from 758 in the 2020 edition. In total, results from the top 550 universities (10 per cent more than previously) were published.

Considered responses were captured from more than 75,000 employers, over 40,800 mapped degrees and affiliations spanning 29,000 high-achievers, nearly 170,000 employers’ connections with graduates, and evaluated more than 310,000 work placement partnerships for 2022.