QS Stars rated Irish universities showcasing their strengths
By Stephanie Braudeau
Two Irish universities have recently been rated by the new global rating system QS Stars. They are taking the opportunity to publish the results on their website. The institutions have been evaluated against 8 criteria: Research, Employability, Teaching, Infrastructure, Internationalisation, Innovation, Engagement and Specialist criteria; each criterion being divided in specific indicators.
The universities received an overall star rating and individual star ratings for each criterion. Both Irish universities achieved 5 Stars in multiple criteria. Showcase on University College Cork and University of Limerick.
University College Cork achieved 5 Stars overall:
University of Limerick achieved 4 Stars overall:
If you would like to receive information about QS Stars, please contact Mrs Deena Al Hilli deena@qs.com or visit the dedicated QS Stars page on http://www.topuniversities.com/qsstars/home
France: Improvement of the graduate situation
by Stephanie Braudeau
The Conference des Grandes Ecoles in France released last week the results of the Graduate Employability survey conducted among its members, i.e. Engineering and Business Schools. The exercise took place in January 2011 referring to graduates from the class of 2010.
The first thing worth to note is the high response rate: 55.3% of graduate from 153 schools took part in the survey out of 37,500 graduates (including 10% of international students) among 192 schools in the CGE; 7.5% more than last year’s survey.
Graduates from the class of 2009 were among the severely hit by the international crisis with 19% of them in the market searching for a job and 60% employed at the time of the 2010 survey; though it seems the situation for the class of 2010 put back on its feet as 13% were searching for an employment and 68% were employed in January 2011. The employment rate (84%) therefore is also better this year than it was last year (76.1%). It is worth noting that the majority of graduates who found a job were in a permanent position in January 2011.
Internships are a springboard
The survey also shows that 41.4% of graduates in engineering and 35.6% in management found their current position through the internships/apprenticeship they have done during their studies. Internships being compulsory in France in order to graduate in these schools; revealing student work experience is a veritable spring board towards professional life.
International aspect
12.9% of working graduates are employed abroad (11.9% of engineers and 16.5% of managers). Among this rate in the top destination countries, surprisingly Switzerland welcomes 1/3 of graduates abroad and the United Kingdom, 13%.
Gender inequality
In terms of salaries, women are still behind men, whatsoever in engineering or management schools.
The graphs have been created by QSIU using data extracted from the full report.
More information on:
Full report available on Educpros (in French)
Elite French Graduates Did Better Than Others in Upturn, Report Shows
QS Stars rated Indonesian universities showcasing their strengths
Recent events have shown that many QS Stars rated universities are in the process of reviewing their strategy after they received their star rating award. Several universities in Indonesia have recently been rated by the new global rating system QS Stars. The Universities received a comprehensive report called “Development Report” which outlined their performance in the evaluation. Some of these Indonesian universities are taking the opportunity to show their excellence in publishing the results on their website. A focus on:
A gap between French universities?
by Stephanie Braudeau
A gap between the quality of programmes offered at French universities is growing larger suggests a regional analysis released a couple of weeks ago by the Agence d’évaluation de la recherche et de l’enseignement supérieur, AERES, a French statutorily independent agency. The 600 page report is a thorough four-year work involving 4,500 French and international experts and carrying out 10,000 evaluations. The agency evaluated two main areas: Bachelor programmes and research activities. Each region gathers a detailed profile of the universities it includes, with their strengths and weaknesses.
For the Bachelor programmes, four grades are available, A+, A, B and C. A+ is for excellent programmes, A means programmes are of very good quality, B that the programmes are justified though do not meet the criteria requirements and D represents programmes that do not meet requirements and have too many weaknesses.
As for the research institutes, four indicators are drawn by subject areas: production; attractivity, socio-cultural and economic impact; strategy and institution life and project appreciation. Each indicator is ranked between A+ to C, but it also leads to a global grade, A+ indicating an international visibility, A being a high quality institute, B rated as a good institute that needs to improve its quality in several areas and C, an institute needing to substantially improve its quality level to meet the requirements. Continue Reading
Rankings and their impact for French universities
by Stephanie Braudeau
Last Friday 3rd December 2010, the QS Intelligence Unit was represented at a conference organised by the group L’Etudiant/Educpros about rankings.
Name of the event :“ Classements et Rankings: Que vont-ils encore changer dans le paysage de l’enseignement supérieur ?’’ Rankings : What will they change in the higher education scene?
Audience: French and Belgian universities, Business Schools, engineering schools, journalists and organizations specialised in the higher education sector.
Key themes: Rankings and their stakes and impact, strategies chosen by universities and the type of communication to adopt regarding rankings.
QSIU Research Manager Baerbel Eckelmann was among the key note speakers during a workshop called ‘Stakes and impact of rankings’ where she explained to the audience how QSIU collects data, the weightings and the importance of indicators. QS Marketing and Communications Director Isabelle Pasmantier and Junior Analyst Stephanie Braudeau also attended the conference to help answer questions. Continue Reading
The French universities revolution is en route
by Stephanie Braudeau
Making French universities more attractive?
Last December, French President, Nicolas Sarkozy announced that a €35 billion national loan will prioritise higher education and training. At the press conference he expressed the desire to produce the best universities in the world. In order to achieve his objective, he decided to inject €7.7 billion for a project of creating between 5 and 10 initiatives d’excellence, elite campuses in order to compete with the best world universities. These campuses will be linked with their economic environment, allowing a better cooperation between Grandes Ecoles and universities as well as research institutions to contribute to the economic integration of their surroundings. They will also be targeting stellar professors, researchers and students.
For a decade, the higher education environment has been changing in France. In order to be more competitive in the international market, more and more schools are merging such as between the two Grandes Ecoles ESC Lille and Ceram Business School into SKEMA Business School in 2009 or ESCP Europe born from the École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris and the EAP (Ecole Européenne des Affaires) merger in 2000. Networks or alliances are also flourishing, such as the creation of Paristech in 2007, a centre of excellence gathering 12 prestigious Parisian Grandes Ecoles.
In 2007, the government implemented the project of giving more autonomy to public universities. The goal is that by 2012, all French universities will be autonomous in terms of human resources and budget management.
Public universities have been granted a yearly budget of €1 billion whilst other European countries are cutting education budgets. Continue Reading
