QS Insights Magazine
Issue 15 March 2024
What employers want
Contents
Rise of interdisciplinary degrees for undergrads
Why interdisciplinary programmes are proving popular with students.
Feeling the squeeze
Despite a decline in MBA interest, business schools are quickly trying to adapt to the evolving demands of a new generation of students.
The subtle politics of higher education
Lessons from the Australian Universities Accord.
Exciting realities
Extended reality is an emerging technology in education. But what does research and practice say about its impact on student learning?
The evidence: it’s complicated
The real impact of edtech for students isn’t as simple as it seems, with many layers of complex issues to unpack.
Improving female inclusion in business education
What problems are female MBA students facing and how can business schools help?
What employers want
New skills are influencing employers graduate hiring practices.
New skills and the new collar worker
Panellists at the recent QS Higher Ed Summit: Middle East 2024 discuss why and how universities can still play a relevant role for students looking to step into the working world.
Why AI is education's powerful ally
Integrating AI into the education landscape can help prepare students for the complexities of the modern job market.
Cultivating the entrepreneurial mindset
Preparing students for success in a dynamic world
Early intervention the key to student employability success
Starting early to save more work later for graduate employability.
Universities will not disappear, but will have to change
The importance of flexible learning pathways and why universities might want to operate like travel agencies.
From opportunity to impact
The power of higher education in enlightening women.
Volume 2
We've been here before. Graduate employability remains a critical concern for students across their educational journey and employers. What can we learn from the past and how have things changed?
While in Darwin in August 2016, I was asked a very interesting question: how have things improved?
I was in Australia’s Top End to cover the Council of International Students Australia’s annual conference, a student-led organisation advocating for the rights and wellbeing of international students. Like many student-led organisations, its membership represented a diverse mix of disciplines, and when some journalism majors found out that a real, practicing reporter was amongst them, they were keen to turn the tables and interview me.
For the most part, the questions were what you might expect. What did my day-to-day look like? How has journalism changed? Who did I read? Where did I think the future lay for the field? Hopefully my answers didn’t disappoint them too much when they realised I worked in a niche sector publication rather than the mainstream press. But then I was asked the most interesting question.
Also like many student-led organisations, the turnover for CISA’s membership is comparatively high; when a student graduates from their institution (CISA represents those at all levels of study, including language instruction and shorter vocational courses), they also tend to graduate from being a member. In practice, that means a relatively short timeframe to achieve things and a comparatively short collective understanding of what’s come before.
A few years earlier, in 2012, I considered myself fortunate to have attended the CISA annual conference when it was in my home city, Brisbane. In 2016, however, the journalism students saw me as an opportunity to understand their present in the context of their collective, organisational past. So, they asked me the question, “how have things improved?”.
It was a difficult question to answer. At that point in Australian international education history, the 2016 strategy and roadmap, which repositioned how the then government viewed the sector and the value international students brought to the country, was barely a few months old. A key component of significant interest to those gathered at the event was over whether the proposed post study work rights changes would be grandfather in to include them. Four years earlier, similar conversations around work after study dominated Brisbane. As, too, did discussions on student accommodation, safety, wellbeing, in-study work and the cost-of-living. Things had changed, but determining if and how they’d improved was hard to determine.
In the following years, the answer became much clearer. Buoyed by new opportunities, international student numbers in Australia hit consecutive record highs up until the pandemic, as did the number of students accessing post-study work rights. Other concerns were also worked on, if not completely solved. The present-day anxieties that exists in Australian international education aside, in 2024, I could now give those journalism students a positive response.
That’s the spirit of this edition of QS Insights Magazine. This month, we provide a second volume to a piece we wrote in 2021 for the QS Global Education News magazine, ‘What employers want’. As you will discover, measuring improvement can often be difficult, due in no small part to significant change. Also included are several pieces looking at not just the hard skills students need, but the soft and adaptive skills, and how universities can help them.
Anton John Crace
Anton is Editor in Chief of QS Insights Magazine. He also curates the Higher Ed Summits, EDS and Reimagine Education conference at QS Quacquarelli Symonds. He has been writing on the international higher ed sector for over a decade. His recognitions include the Universities Australia Higher Education Journalist of the Year at the National Press Club of Australia, and the International Education Association of Australia award for Excellence in Professional Commentary.
Contributors
Editor-in-chief Anton John Crace
Deputy Editor Afifah Darke
Content Manager Khushboo Singh
Contributing writers Dr Ant Bagshaw Claudia Civinini Chloë Lane Eugenia Lim Seb Murray John O' Leary Niamh Ollerton
Guest writers Sadia Akter Gordon Scott Linda Scott
Events Technology Manager Loh Lu Han
Marketing and PR Serena Ricci Mak Leeson
Cover Produced by Adobe Firefly
Design Kek Yea Yin
Sales contact sales@qs.com
The QS Insights Magazine is a monthly, online and print publication that highlights trends within the international education sector.
The online edition is emailed to our network of academics and university leaders worldwide. A limited number of selected copies of the print edition are also sent to university leaders around the world and distributed at QS events.
The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of QS Quacquarelli Symonds.