Uzbekistan has introduced a "Graduate Quality Index" to evaluate the labour market outcomes of university graduates. Bakhtiyor Yuldashev, director of the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Education, announced at a press conference in Tashkent that according to a study covering July 2025 to June 2026, the average official monthly income of graduates was 4.9 million soum.
The agency analysed the labour market outcomes of 249,432 graduates from 170 higher education institutions for the 2024/2025 academic year. It examined how quickly they found employment, the stability of their employment, official income and form of employment. The results were compiled into the "Graduate Quality Index", for which a dedicated platform was created. According to Yuldashev, the index was introduced in accordance with a presidential decree dated 10 April 2026. Its main purpose is to assess the performance of higher education institutions through the real outcomes of their graduates.
According to the analysis, the average time to employment was 3 months and 5 days. This varies by the ownership form of the institution: graduates of private universities found work in an average of 2 months and 10 days, state university graduates in 2 months and 29 days, and graduates of foreign university branches in 3 months and 20 days. "However, obtaining a diploma and finding a job does not in itself mean the graduate has succeeded in the labour market. Therefore, the index separately assessed employment stability," Yuldashev said. According to him, the share of graduates who worked stably over the last six months was 42.9% nationwide. In foreign university branches this figure was 49.8%, in private universities 46.7%, and in state universities 42.1%.
The average official monthly income of the analysed graduates was 4.9 million soum. Among regions, the highest figure was in Tashkent city at 6.6 million soum. By province, Navoi and Tashkent regions recorded an average official income of over 5 million soum. At some institutions this figure is significantly higher than the national average. For example, in the applied sciences category, graduates of Inha University in Tashkent earned an average of 12.6 million soum. At Tashkent University of Information Technologies the figure was 9.4 million soum, and at Navoi State Mining and Technology University it was 8.1 million soum. In the social sciences and humanities category, graduates of Westminster International University in Tashkent ranked first with an average income of 12.5 million soum. At the University of World Economy and Diplomacy the figure was 10.6 million soum, and at Tashkent State University of Economics it was 10.3 million soum.
The highest score in the index was achieved by the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan with 81.5 points. Second place went to the conservatory's Nukus branch with 79.6 points, and third to the Centre for Implementation of Webster University Programmes in Tashkent with 76.3 points. Inha University scored 74.2, the Termez branch of Tashkent State Medical University scored 74, Asia International University 73.4, Navoi State Mining and Technology University 72.4, and Tashkent International Nordic University 72.1 points. The average national score of the Graduate Quality Index was 53.4 points. By region, the highest results were recorded in Surkhandarya at 62.1 points and Tashkent city at 60 points. Bukhara scored 59.1, Kashkadarya 58.6, and Namangan 58.4 points. The lowest average index was in the Republic of Karakalpakstan at 49.5 points.
Deputy director of the agency Sardor Rakhimboyev said the index also takes into account graduate migration. Interior Ministry data on border crossings were compared with university databases. According to him, 2,542 graduates were identified who stayed abroad for more than three months over a 12-month period and did not return. This is approximately 1% of nearly 249,000 graduates. How many of them left for study and how many for work is not yet displayed as a separate indicator on the platform. However, they are included in the "high-coefficient" employment category.
The press conference also addressed the issue of universities being forced to ensure graduate employment. Yuldashev noted that a university head should not be obliged to personally find a job for a graduate. However, the labour market outcome of graduates should be one of the indicators assessing the effectiveness of a university's activities. In his view, this will encourage rectors to adapt educational programmes to labour market demands, cooperate more with employers and work with graduates. In this context, he also criticised the practice of requiring students to provide information about employment or self-employment before issuing a diploma. "Asking about employment to issue a diploma is wrong. But conducting an exam to issue a diploma is right," he said.
The event also touched on the quality of private higher education institutions. Agency leadership emphasised that it is wrong to assess state, private or foreign universities in general terms as "good" or "bad". Each category has institutions with high and low results. "In the 2024/2025 academic year, 211,587 of the analysed graduates, or nearly 85%, were from state universities. 12.7% were from private educational organisations, and 6,100 were graduates of foreign university branches," said Sardor Rakhimboyev. According to him, the average index by ownership form was 58.7 for foreign universities, 55.1 for private universities and 53 points for state universities. However, according to Yuldashev, these figures cannot be directly turned into the conclusion that "state or private is better". The reason is that state universities have far more graduates. At the same time, it was acknowledged that there are problems with education quality in private universities.
Bakhtiyor Yuldashev said that 64 institutions have been involved in institutional accreditation, and 9 of them were found to have critical risks related to education quality and were brought into the accreditation process ahead of schedule. According to him, the purpose of this process is not only to punish universities but to identify problems and improve education quality. The agency head stated that publishing the index pursues four main goals: "Such a system will strengthen competition between universities, encourage them to work with students in a targeted manner and, as a result, help produce better-prepared graduates for the labour market."
Earlier, Minister of Higher Education Kongratbay Sharipov said that 70% of graduates of the 2025/2026 academic year had been provided with employment, and the goal is to bring this figure to 100% by the end of the year. To this end, a new system is being introduced with the participation of the Ministry of Employment, banks and regional administrations to employ graduates, retrain them and help them start their own businesses. According to Yuldashev, the index will be updated annually, and the key question will be how the indicators change next year: "Next year at the same time we will discuss how many universities moved up, how many moved down, and what the overall index of 53.4 became — 60 or 50."
It should be noted that the figures presented reflect only officially recorded incomes. The actual income of graduates working in the informal sector or self-employed is not taken into account. This indicates that the index may not reflect the full picture. Moreover, only 42.9% of graduates had stable employment over the last six months — meaning that one in two graduates frequently changes jobs or remains unemployed. This suggests that the higher education system is not yet fully integrated with the labour market.
Source: www.gazeta.uz