South African higher education institutions have strong employability practices. Still, a national tracking system is needed so that fragmented graduate tracking can show whether these efforts translate into job creation, relevant work and sustained career outcomes.

These are the findings of a national benchmarking study involving 50 public and private higher education institutions. The study found strong practices in curriculum relevance, employer engagement, and work-integrated learning, alongside serious weaknesses in employability strategy, measurable targets, and comparable data.

The findings matter because universities are frequently questioned about graduate unemployment, even though employment also depends on economic growth and job creation beyond their control. The more relevant question would be whether institutions can prove that their curricula and support systems give graduates the strongest chance in a difficult labour market.

The findings of the study were discussed during an online webinar convened by the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA) and Universities South Africa (USAf’s) Community of Practice on Digital Education in Learning and Teaching (DELT CoP), in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, conducted the benchmarking study with the Council on Higher Education (CHE).

Ms Dalila Suhonjic, IFC Senior Education and Employability Specialist, and Ms Marlie Spencer, IFC Education and Employability Analyst and local project lead for the Skills in South Africa programme, presented the findings. Dr Britta Zawada, former CHE Director for Institutional Audits, explained that the project emerged from a broader CHE-IFC partnership.

The CHE had already examined student success at public universities through its Reconceptualising Learning and Teaching, or RELATE, research programme. Still, funding constraints had prevented it from undertaking comparable research in the private higher education sector.

Dr Zawada acknowledged that she had initially approached the proposed collaboration with a World Bank-linked company with some scepticism. The final agreement, however, developed into what she described as a reciprocal partnership: the CHE contributed to the employability benchmarking project, while the IFC funded separate research into student success in private higher education. The webinar focused on employability; a later engagement will address digital maturity.

Participation was voluntary, and the benchmark was not a compulsory CHE quality assurance exercise. The methodology, instruments, data storage arrangements and project team underwent ethics and data protection review. The 50 institutions comprised 16 of South Africa’s 26 public universities and 34 private higher education providers. Together, they represented slightly more than 600,000 undergraduate students from a national population of about 1.3 million.

The assessment provided a comprehensive benchmark to inform sector-wide improvements. It covered five dimensions: relevance of learning; employability strategy and employment outcomes; employer engagement; career services; and alumni engagement. The benchmark was intended to guide improvement, not produce a league table.

The study revealed significant variation among institutions, with some having emerging employability systems. In contrast, others aligned with the best international practices, indicating a need to develop standardised practices across the sector to promote overall improvement.

Public institutions performed well relative to the IFC’s global average, underscoring the sector’s potential to demonstrate its impact with better data. However, the study did not establish a simple divide between strong public universities and weak private providers.

Suhonjic noted that both private and public institutions offer valuable approaches: practising lecturers bring current workplace knowledge, while advisory boards provide broader industry consensus. Together, these strengths reflect the sector’s collective potential for growth.

The study evaluated how institutions maintained up-to-date course content and incorporated transferable skills such as communication and problem-solving. It found minimal differences between the two types of institutions: private providers reviewed modules more often, while public universities had stronger employer consultation and staff development systems.

Some institutions articulated graduate attributes but lacked effective support for lecturers in integrating these qualities. This highlights the gap between declaring desired outcomes and establishing systems to achieve them.

Digital literacy was assessed as a vital employability skill, encompassing digital citizenship, content evaluation, and safe information production, not just basic computer training.

Public universities generally offered better access to digital literacy across programmes, though availability was uneven. Spencer pointed out that students entered higher education with varying levels of digital competence, which should be woven throughout teaching and assessment, rather than limited to first-year courses.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) emerged as one of the sector’s strongest dimensions. For the study, WIL referred to learning in real, non-simulated workplaces, including internships, clinical placements, field placements and on-the-job training.

Many institutions, particularly public universities, had units facilitating placements. Suhonjic confirmed that the researchers found strong assessment practices, with students, employers and supervisors contributing to evaluation. It also examined support for workplace experience outside graduation requirements.

Although the overall picture was positive, provision remained concentrated in internships and regulated professions. There was less evidence of applied research with industry, cooperative education, and other models that address real workplace problems.

Bhekisisa Mncube is a contract writer for Universities South Africa.