Why employers are interested in where you got your degree

Going to the “right” university has a distinct advantage in the job market, a survey of employer attitudes carried out by Saturday Nation has shown.

It disclosed, for the first time, that Kenyan employers have preferences for graduate jobseekers, largely based on previous experience with graduates from the institutions in question.

The survey among top recruitment agencies, professional institutions and human resource executives revealed a preference for graduates of the University of Nairobi (UoN) in many fields, partially attributed to the fact that most senior executives are drawn from the pioneer university.

However, the findings placed other universities — some private or recently established — among the favoured.

Engineering

Graduates of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKuat), for instance, are most favoured when it comes to engineering while Strathmore Business School scores highly in accounting and auditing.

Feedback from employers and employment agencies indicate that UoN graduates have an upper hand in the job market, followed by those from Kenyatta, JKUAT, Moi and Maseno in that order.

“From where I sit, Nairobi and Kenyatta remain ahead of the pack,” said a consultant with employment agencies.

This implies that in an interview for the same job, a graduate from Maseno University is highly unlikely to be hired if candidates from Nairobi and Kenyatta with similar qualifications and experience sought the post.

According to the employers and recruitment agencies, preference for UoN graduates is largely informed by three factors: its ranking in Africa, reputation as the oldest in Kenya and the fact that a high number of senior managers in blue chip companies are alumni of the institution. Nairobi is the top university in Kenya and is ranked 23 in Africa.

It is second to Dar es Salaam in the region, which is at position 21, while Makerere University in Kampala comes a distant 53. The only other public universities in Kenya ranked among the top 100 in Africa are Egerton (29), Moi (71) and Jomo Kenyatta at position 97.

“The top leadership of most employers is made up of graduates of from the University of Nairobi,” says a human resource expert who did not want to be identified for fear of antagonising colleagues.

“The graduates also constitute a larger number of applicants and they cut across a variety of courses. Similarly, most of them are likely to meet our minimum entry criteria than those from other campuses,” said one human resource director.

However, the employers’ choice is also pegged on the courses studied. Some universities are perceived to train better professionals in specific fields.

For instance journalism graduates from UoN are rated high, followed by their counterparts from Maseno, Daystar and Moi, United States International University and Baraton, in that order.