Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — Uzbekistan will introduce a Graduate Quality Index from 1 October 2026 to assess universities based on the employment outcomes of their graduates. Each year, the 20 higher education institutions with the highest scores will receive 500 million soums from the state budget to develop their career centres.
The measure was approved by Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 525, signed on 29 September 2026.
The document was adopted to implement Presidential Decree No. UP-58 of 10 April 2026 on additional measures to improve the higher education, science and innovation system. Its purpose is to encourage universities to improve graduate employment indicators and promote healthy competition among higher education institutions.
How the index will be calculated
The index will be calculated annually by the National Agency for Education Quality Assurance. It will cover graduates of all higher education institutions regardless of their administrative affiliation or organisational and legal form, except higher military and paramilitary educational institutions. A graduate is defined as a person who completed university in the reporting year and received a bachelor's or master's degree. The reporting year runs from 1 July to 30 June of the following year.
The assessment will be based on four indicators: the speed of graduate employment, the level of sustained employment, average monthly income and employment category. The agency will determine the methodology for calculating the index. Foreign citizens, as well as graduates serving in the military, those deprived of liberty and deceased graduates, will not be included in the calculation.
Universities will be compared within four categories: applied sciences, medical sciences, social sciences and humanities, and arts and sports. Results for universities that had fewer than 200 graduates during the reporting year will be considered separately, and such institutions will not be eligible for the incentive. An exception will apply to arts and sports universities. Universities liquidated during the year will not be included in the final results.
Where the data will come from
The index will be generated on an automated digital platform that will collect and verify information from government information systems. Data on diplomas, specialisations and fields of study will be obtained from the HEMIS system of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation. The Tax Committee will provide, through my.soliq.uz, information on graduates' income and on how many of them have established a legal entity, become individual entrepreneurs or registered as self-employed.
The Ministry of Poverty Reduction and Employment will provide data from the Unified National Labour System on graduates' workplaces, positions, employment dates and work experience. The Ministry of Defence will report graduates called up for military service, the National Agency for Social Protection will provide information on graduates requiring social protection, and the Ministry of Health will provide data on graduates on childcare leave. The Ministry of Internal Affairs will provide information on travel abroad, while the Ministry of Justice will provide data on company formation and deaths. The Ministry of Economy and Finance will provide salary and income data from the UzASBO software complex.
The agencies providing the information will be responsible for its accuracy. If data is found to be inaccurate or falsified, or if a university is found to have attempted to artificially inflate its indicators, the agency director will issue an order excluding the institution from the index for that year.
The agency, together with the Ministry of Digital Technologies, must launch the platform by 10 November 2026 using extra-budgetary funds. By 1 November, the State Institution "Cybersecurity Centre" will test the platform for compliance with cybersecurity requirements. By 1 December, the Ministry of Digital Technologies must integrate the information systems of government agencies with the platform through the Electronic Government interagency platform.
Deadlines and the "traffic light"
The agency will approve the list of participating universities by category by 15 July and prepare preliminary results by 15 August. The preliminary results will be sent to universities through their personal accounts on the platform within 10 days. Universities will have 10 days to review the results and report errors, while the agency will consider appeals within 15 days. If an error is related to the source of the data, the result may remain unchanged, but the agency will send the relevant government body recommendations for improving data collection.
Final results will be published annually on the agency's website by 1 October. For clarity, universities in each category will be divided into three groups: the "green" group will include the 30% with the best results, the "yellow" group will comprise the next 30%, and the remaining 40% will be placed in the "red" group.
Who will receive the funding
The number of universities receiving incentives will be distributed among the categories in proportion to the number of universities in each category. If universities receive equal scores, preference will be given to the institution with the higher average monthly graduate income. If that indicator is also equal, the sustainability of employment, employment category and speed of employment will be taken into account.
Funding for the incentives in 2027 will be provided within the budget of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, while from 2028 the funds will be included in state budget parameters. The ministry will transfer the funds to stat
