Employability, social impact reshape global university rankings
Global university rankings are looking beyond traditional measures of academic excellence, placing greater emphasis on how universities prepare students for a changing job market and contribute to society as artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes workplaces. But emerging and regional universities still face the challenge of balancing performance on common ranking criteria with efforts to develop…
Global university rankings are evolving beyond traditional academic measures, placing greater emphasis on a university's ability to prepare students for a rapidly changing job market and its contributions to society in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). However, emerging and regional universities are still grappling with the challenge of balancing their performance on standard ranking criteria with promoting their unique strengths.
Representatives from Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and Times Higher Education (THE) noted a broader shift in the way university performance is assessed, with QS giving more weight to graduate employability and THE focusing on sustainability and wider social impact.
During special sessions held following the 2026 Korea Times Global Conference, the two global ranking organizations discussed the changes and evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of Korean universities. According to QS, employability has become a more prominent factor in global rankings, currently accounting for 20 percent of the QS World University Rankings. The organization is actively exploring ways to further emphasize this aspect in their assessments.
Written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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- Employability, social impact reshape global university rankings koreatimes.co.kr
