The Effectiveness of Leading Russian Universities in Achieving Graduate-Level Employability from Social Network Data

Abstract

The ‘VKontakte’ social network is increasingly becoming a useful source of data for studying many aspects of Russian social life. This research paper uses this source to investigate one of the most crucial issues for many young Russians – how successful are Russia’s leading universities in the employability rates of their graduates on completion of their studies. Official data from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation show fairly high rates of employment, but the methodology used gives us little indication of the extent to which their employment corresponds to the professional or occupational specialism they acquired at their university. The analysis with the use of the ‘VKontakte’ network provides significant insight into this question. This paper presents results about the employability of graduates from the leading Russian universities participating in the 5–100 Competitiveness and Growth Program specifically in the subjects of “Mathematics and Information Technology” and “Engineering” where a high degree of correlation between subject specialism and employment is expected (The Russian Academic Excellence Project aiming at bringing 5 Russian Universities into their list of the Top 100 world universities (For more details see: http://5top100.com/)).