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Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Justice has formally registered a departmental regulation establishing how universities will be scored on the employability of their graduates, with the top 20 institutions set to receive 500 million soums each per year for their career centres. The document was entered into the state register on 31 October 2026 under number 3964.
The regulation introduces what it calls a Graduate Quality Index, calculated on four core indicators. The source text does not enumerate all four by name, but specifies that the index covers the speed at which graduates find work, the category of employment they enter, and the stability of that employment over time. Results are compiled on a reporting-year basis running from 1 July to 30 June of the following year — a 12-month cycle that does not align with the calendar year.
Graduates listed in the Social Register as needing social protection receive preferential treatment under the methodology. When assessing how quickly they find work and what category of employment they enter, the highest available coefficient is applied. They are also automatically counted among graduates in stable employment when that indicator is calculated. Where a graduate simultaneously qualifies under more than one employment category, only the highest applicable coefficient is used.
The financial incentive flows from a presidential decree cited in the regulation. Each year, the 20 universities that achieve the highest Graduate Quality Index scores will see their Career Centres rewarded with 500 million soums apiece. The regulation does not specify which ministry or fund disburses the money, nor does it set out an appeals process for institutions that dispute their ranking.
The move is part of a broader push by Uzbekistan’s government to tie state support for higher education more directly to labour-market outcomes. Earlier this year, a separate initiative offered dual-education institutions and their partner enterprises up to 3 billion soums, and the government has been expanding private management of vocational colleges on similar performance logic. The Graduate Quality Index extends that accountability framework to degree-granting universities, making their career-placement infrastructure a direct source of institutional revenue — or its absence.