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Thousands of major recruiters around the world have voted on which local and international universities produce the best graduates for their workplace.

The results are published in a Global Employability University Survey and Ranking, revealed exclusively by Times Higher Education today.

Although many of the universities that received the most votes, and are therefore at the top of the employability ranking, are recognised as world-leading institutions, there are a number of surprises.

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In particular, the top 20 features a number of universities outside the US and the UK that might not be obvious choices for students looking to maximise their career opportunities.

These include the Technical University of Munich, in Germany, the University of Tokyo, in Japan, École Normale Supérieure, in France, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The unexpected result reflects the preferences of both national companies who recruite graduates in their own country, and multinational and international companies who recruite globally.

Perhaps the biggest anomaly is the Indian Institute of Science at 20th place in the employability ranking, but ranked outside the top 250 universities by Times Higher Education.

Given that only 102 surveyed recruiters were from Indian companies, the 332 votes cast for the Indian Institute of Science suggests that a good number of international companies particularly value the graduates that they recruit from the Indian institution.

Global Employability University Ranking: top 20 universities

More than a quarter of the recruiters surveyed worked for companies in the IT, consultancy or engineering sectors. Other prominent sectors included retail, finance, construction, transport and pharmaceuticals.

Recently, the consultancy firm Deloitte announced that it would not give recruiters information about where candidates went to university, so as to avoid unconsciously prejudicing against talented candidates simply on the basis of their alma mater.

Nonetheless, the survey reveals that many recruiters do form preferences for certain universities, largely based on their past experience with graduates, the international exposure graduates could have had at univ��������ٲ�,��and the level of expertise that they assume����������ܲ��ٱ����will have.

Why recruiters prefer graduates from particular universities

US, UK and French universities count for 61 of the top 150 institutions preferred by employers. But German, Chinese and Swiss institutions also fared particularly well.

Laurent Dupasquier, associate director of Emerging – the consultancy behind the survey – explained that France’s disproportionate success was due to the fact that in the current market employers are now seeking graduates who have already had experience in professional environments. In the French grandes écoles system, students spend almost half their degree undertaking work experience.

Although Canada is often an overlooked opportunity for international study compared with the Ivy League institutions on offer in the US and Oxbridge in the UK, its top institution – the University of Toronto – is the 10th most preferred university for employers worldwide.

Country profiles in the Global Employability University Ranking

The ranking was put together by French human resources consultancy Emerging, and the survey and data collection was conducted by Trendence, a market research firm.

A panel of local recruiters named a number of national universities from where they source their best graduates, and a second panel of international or multinational companies cast up to 10 votes for the range of universities already on this shortlist. Recruiters could also add universities to the list at any stage.

Recruiters were asked to vote for the universities that, from their professional experience, were producing the best “ready-for-work” graduates.

See the full results of the Global Employability University Survey 2015-16 here.