Nanyang Technological University (NTU) graduates are not exactly the most sought after by employers.

Yesterday, NTU placed 117th in the world among 150 institutions for turning out employable graduates, a slight improvement, nonetheless, as they were not even in the rankings in 2014.

Into its fifth year, the Global Employability University Ranking is designed and commissioned by French human resource consulting agency Emerging. It is carried out by German market research firm Trendence.

The survey was conducted with over 2,200 recruiters from 21 countries, including Singapore.

They were asked to vote for the universities that, based on their professional experience, were producing the best "ready-for-work" graduates.

The highest-ranked Asian university was Japan's University of Tokyo in 12th place.

National University of Singapore (NUS) graduates are placed 17th in the world, up from 39th last year.

Harvard University displaced the University of Cambridge at the top.

Some good news for NUS though: According to Times Higher Education, even though universities’ frequent claims to prioritise the creation of work-ready graduates can come across as hollow clichés, with little material impact on what they actually deliver to students, NUS's leap up the global ranking for employability, suggests that its own efforts are having a significant effect.

The graduate employment survey for last year's NUS class showed the median gross monthly salary of fresh NUS graduates in full-time permanent employment was $3,200 last year, compared with $3,000 for 2013.

Close to nine in 10 found jobs within six months of graduation.

Here's the 2015 rankings:

H/T The Straits Times, Channel News Asia, Times Higher Education

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