In Uzbekistan, the average income of university graduates is 4.9 million soums — results of a new index

Average income of university graduates in Uzbekistan is 4.9 million soums — results of the new index

According to studies covering the period from July 2025 to the end of June 2026 in Uzbekistan, the average official monthly income of higher education institution graduates was 4.9 million soums. This was announced by Bakhtiyor Yuldashev, Director of the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Education, at a press conference held in Tashkent, Gazeta correspondent reports.

According to Yuldashev, the agency analyzed the labor market outcomes of 249,432 graduates who completed 170 higher education organizations in the 2024/2025 academic year. In doing so, the time it took them to find employment, the stability of their employment, their official income, and the form of employment were studied.

According to the agency director, this index was introduced in accordance with the president's decree dated April 10, 2026. Its main task is to evaluate the activities of higher education organizations through the real results of graduates.

"The Graduate Quality Index is a platform for evaluating the results of graduates in the labor market by bringing together more than 10 state platforms," he says.

According to the analysis, it took graduates an average of 3 months and 5 days to find employment.

This indicator varies depending on the ownership form of the university: graduates of non-state higher education institutions found employment in an average of 2 months and 10 days, graduates of state universities in 2 months and 29 days, and graduates of branches of foreign universities in 3 months and 20 days.

"However, finding a job after receiving a diploma does not in itself mean that the graduate has succeeded in the labor market. Therefore, the stability of employment was also separately evaluated in the index," says Yuldashev.

He noted that the share of graduates who worked stably during the last six months was 42.9 percent across the republic. This indicator was 49.8 percent in branches of foreign universities, 46.7 percent in non-state universities, and 42.1 percent in state universities.

The average official monthly income of the analyzed graduates was 4.9 million soums. Among the regions, the highest indicator is in the city of Tashkent — 6.6 million soums.

In terms of regions, the average official income in Navoiy and Tashkent regions was recorded at 5 million soums.

In some universities, this indicator is much 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 soums. At Tashkent University of Information Technologies, this indicator was 9.4 million soums, and at Navoiy State University of Mining and Technologies, it was 8.1 million soums.

In the social sciences and humanities field, graduates of Westminster International University in Tashkent rank first with an average income of 12.5 million soums. At the University of World Economy and Diplomacy, this indicator was 10.6 million soums, and at Tashkent State University of Economics, it was 10.3 million soums.

Bakhtiyor Yuldashev says that this refers to officially recorded incomes.

In this process, the graduate's income is compared with the average wage in the region where they reside. Through this, the wage gap between regions is also taken into account.

For a fair comparison of higher education institutions, they were divided into four categories based on the nature of specialist training: applied, medical, social-humanitarian, and creative (sports).

According to the results of the 2024/2025 academic year, 20 universities that recorded the highest indicators were selected for incentives. 11 of them belonged to the social-humanitarian, 5 to the applied, 2 to the medical, and 2 to the creative and sports categories.

The State Conservatory of Uzbekistan recorded the highest result in the index with 81.5 points. The Nukus branch of the conservatory ranked second with 79.6 points, and the Center for the Implementation of Educational Programs of Webster University in Tashkent ranked third with 76.3 points.

In addition, Inha University scored 74.2, the Termez branch of Tashkent State Medical University scored 74, Asian International University scored 73.4, Navoiy State University of Mining and Technologies scored 72.4, and Tashkent International Nordic University scored 72.1 points.

Bakhtiyor Yuldashev noted that evaluating the conservatory and the law university based on the same criteria is not correct. Therefore, universities were divided into categories depending on the composition of the specialists they train.

"Creative fields, say, the conservatory, can never compete with Tashkent State University of Law under the same criteria," says the head of the agency.

According to him, universities with fewer than 200 graduates are excluded from the main ranking, and their index is maintained separately. This requirement does not apply to universities in creative fields, as there is a practice of individual work with students in this area.

Yuldashev said the agency formed the data based on the principles of "comparability and reproducibility of results."

It is noted that the index was generated automatically, without human intervention, through integration with 10 state information systems. Among them are labor, tax, social protection, and other state systems.

Yuldashev says that whether a graduate is officially working is verified through data from the labor and tax systems.

"If one deceives, the other will still reveal it. Because there are more than 10 platforms," he says.

He noted that more than 14 million data records were analyzed for over 249,000 graduates.

Therefore, the data had to be processed in special analytical platforms, not in simple spreadsheets. At the same time, the agency chose a cautious approach regarding self-employed graduates. Such graduates do not receive an additional incentive coefficient in the index.

According to the head of the agency, this was done to prevent universities from artificially inflating statistical indicators by registering graduates solely as self-employed persons.

The issue of forcing universities to employ graduates was also raised at the press conference.

Yuldashev noted that a university head should not be forced to personally employ a graduate. However, the performance of graduates in the labor market should be one of the indicators evaluating the effectiveness of the university's activities.

In his opinion, this will encourage rectors to adapt educational programs to the requirements of the labor market, cooperate more with employers, and work with graduates.

From this point of view, he also criticized the practice of requiring information about employment or self-employment from a student before issuing a diploma.

"Asking whether they found a job to issue a diploma is wrong. But conducting an exam to issue a diploma is correct," he said.

Bakhtiyor Yuldashev emphasized that the university must verify whether the graduate has acquired the competence through a fair exam. Employment should not be a condition for receiving a diploma.

Sardor Rakhimboyev announced that the migration of graduates was also taken into account in the index. Border exit and entry data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs were compared with university databases.

According to him, 2,542 graduates were identified who stayed abroad for more than three months during the 12-month period and did not return.

This is equivalent to approximately 1 percent of the nearly 249,000 graduates.

Exactly how many of them left for study and how many for work has not yet been released as a separate indicator on the platform. However, they were included in the "high-coefficient" employment category.

Rakhimboyev noted that a graduate's departure abroad for study or work is also evaluated as a skill to operate independently in the labor market.

The issue of the quality of non-state higher education organizations was also touched upon at the event. The agency's leadership emphasized that it is not correct to evaluate state, non-state, or foreign universities generally as "good" or "bad." There are universities with high and low results in each category.

"Of the graduates analyzed in the 2024/2025 academic year, 211,587, or nearly 85 percent, belonged to state universities. 12.7 percent were graduates of non-state educational organizations, and 6,100 were graduates of branches of foreign universities," says Sardor Rakhimboyev.

According to him, the average index score by ownership form was 58.7 for foreign universities, 55.1 for non-state universities, and 53 points for state universities.

However, according to Yuldashev, these figures cannot be directly translated into the conclusion that "state or non-state is better." The reason is that the number of graduates in state higher education institutions is much higher. At the same time, it was not denied that there are problems related to the quality of education in non-state universities.

Bakhtiyor Yuldashev said that 64 universities were involved in institutional accreditation, and critical risks related to the quality of education were identified in 9 of them, leading to their early involvement in the accreditation process.

He emphasized that the purpose of this process is not only to punish universities, but to identify their problems and improve the quality of education.

The head of the agency noted that the index is not limited to identifying only the top 20 universities. The agency plans to divide the data into green, yellow, and red categories and make the results public for all universities.

"This will serve as a signal for universities: universities with good results will strive to maintain and improve their indicators, while those with low results will seek to eliminate their problems. There will always be red, yellow, green. This is for healthy competition," says Yuldashev.

In his opinion, the main goal is not to encourage universities to chase numbers to get a high place in the ranking, but to encourage targeted work with graduates.

Bakhtiyor Yuldashev stated that four main goals are pursued by making the index public.

"Such a system will strengthen competition among universities, encourage them to work with students in a targeted manner, and as a result, serve to produce specialists who are more prepared for the labor market," says the head of the agency.

It was also announced at the presentation that the average score of the "Graduate Quality Index" across the republic is 53.4 points.

In terms of regions, the highest results were recorded in Surxondaryo — 62.1 points and the city of Tashkent — 60 points. Buxoro scored 59.1, Qashqadaryo — 58.6, and Namangan — 58.4 points. The lowest average index is in the Republic of Karakalpakstan — 49.5 points.

However, for the agency, these figures themselves are not the ultimate goal. Yuldashev says the index will be updated annually, and the main question will be how the indicators change next year.

"At this exact time next year, we will discuss how many universities went up, how many went down, and what the overall index of 53.4 became — did it become 60 or 50," he said.

According to Yuldashev, the "Graduate Quality Index" is presented as a system for tracking year-by-year how graduates perform in the labor market, rather than ranking universities just once.

Earlier, Minister of Higher Education Kongratbay Sharipov said that 70 percent of the graduates of the 2025/2026 academic year were provided with jobs, and the goal is to bring this indicator to 100 percent by the end of the year. For this purpose, a new system is being launched with the participation of the Ministry of Employment, banks, and khokimiyats to assist graduates in employment, retraining, and starting their own businesses.