UNSW has been awarded ‘Most Employable University’ in the Top 100 Future Leaders Awards, with 16 UNSW students making the list, the largest percentage of any university across the country.

Dean of Science Professor Merlin Crossley accepted the award on behalf of UNSW, with students Sara Kato and Cassandra Murphy also on hand to accept awards as industry winners in their field.

“We are immensely grateful to all the companies involved in the GradConnection event. Providing opportunities for our graduates to explore job opportunities is vitally important to UNSW and, of course, to all universities,” said Professor Crossley.

“At UNSW we try hard to connect with employers and industry to give our students a taste of the opportunities and also to hear about how we can improve our educational offerings. Receiving this award is a privilege but the true pleasure is seeing our graduates go on to rewarding careers,” he said.

Merlin Crossley

Professor Merlin Crossley accepts the 'Most Employable University' award on behalf of UNSW.

The awards aim to find the “cream of the crop” in the graduate employment stakes and are hosted by graduate job website GradConnection and the Australian Financial Review.

Students took part in a selection process similar to one used by Australia’s major employers, including written applications, psychometric testing and video interviews to discover the top 100.

Winners of the 19 industry and occupational awards were then selected through face-to-face interviews.

UNSW’s category winners were Software Engineering graduate Sara Kato, who won the Deloitte Software Development Award, and Engineering / Science student Cassandra Murphy, who was the joint winner of the AECOM Science, Research and Development Award.

Kato has completed internships at Google and Microsoft and is now studying a Masters in Biomedical Engineering at UNSW. She is also a member of Robogals, an international organisation that aims to increase female participation in engineering.

At UNSW we try hard to connect with employers and industry to give our students a taste of the opportunities and also to hear about how we can improve our educational offerings.

Murphy is majoring in environmental engineering and ecology and is passionate about finding innovative, environmentally sustainable solutions to engineering problems. She is involved in the UNSW Engineers without Borders Society organising events promoting humanitarian engineering.

"It was an honour and a privilege to win the award. The competition was a good experience to meet other like minded, driven students and future employers," Murphy said.

cassandra.jpg

Cassandra Murphy

The Future Leaders Awards give students a head-start in the search for internships and graduate positions as well as practical experience in the recruitment process.

As a result of the awards, some students have been offered internships and graduate positions with industry sponsors.

Other UNSW students to reach the Top 100 Future Leaders list were: Amit Sudhakar (Actuarial Studies / Commerce), Arlyn Swain (Economics / Commerce), Cissy Ye (Commerce / Media), Edbert Chung (Engineering), Ivan Lu (Commerce), Jackson Edmonds (Commerce), Jarred Grimmond (Engineering), Jason Phan (Commerce / Law), Mathew Rowe (Engineering), Peter Morian (Actuarial Studies / Economics), Ranie Nguyen (Engineering / Commerce), Sarthak Sinha (Commerce / Law), Siddharth Doshi (Engineering) and Xin Na Zeng (Commerce).

More information about the awards, and individual profiles of the top 100 Future Leaders, can be found on the GradConnection website.