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These 25 universities are the most attractive to graduate employers

Charlie Benson
Content Marketing Executive

The position of your uni in league tables doesn't necessarily link with how much it appeals to employers.

That is, according to this year's High Fliers report and research into The Graduate Market in 2017. Among many other factors, High Fliers looked at how the UK's leading graduate recruiters found graduate hires - including the universities they targeted during their campus recruitment campaigns. 

They found the most targeted university by Britain's top graduate employers wasn't Oxford or Cambridge. Instead, it was Warwick that took first place, directly followed by Manchester, Bristol, Cambrige and Leeds. 

You can do an undergraduate degree at over 140 institutions in the UK, so, naturally, employers have to focus their search and resources on just a few. On average, according to High Fliers, employers actively marketed their 2017 grad job vacancies at 20 UK universities. They use careers fairs, training events, university careers services, online advertising and social media to do so. 

What is perhaps surprising, though, is that graduate employers don't just follow the traditional league tables. The University of Bath, for example was the 10th most targeted institution by employers - but is ranked 36th by Times Higher Education in their 2017 league table.

 

 

Here are the 25 universities targeted by the largest number of top graduate employers in 2016-2017:

We've listed them with their 2017 Times Higher Education ranking for comparison. 

 

 

1. University of Warwick 

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 10

uniofwarwick

Photo credit: Instagram / @danishahmadkhan

 

 

2. University of Manchester

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 8

uniofmanchester

Photo credit: Instagram / @frncscpttck

 

 

3. University of Bristol 

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 9

uniofbristol

Photo credit: Instagram / @hnryjmes

 

 

4. University of Cambridge 

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 2

cambridgeuni

Photo credit: Instagram / @i2ab3la_s

 

 

5. University of Leeds

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 20 

uniofleeds

Photo credit: Instagram / @xenozeno 

 

 

6. University of Birmingham 

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 19

uniofbirmingham

Photo credit: Instagram / @lydiabent

 

 

7. University of Nottingham 

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 22

uniofnottingham

Photo credit: Instagram / @aimeeliu0710

 

 

8. University of Oxford

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 1

uniofoxford

Photo credit: Instagram / @jet_hsu

 

 

9. Durham University 

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 12

durhamuni

Photo credit: Instagram / @yoyolovesjesus 

 

 

10. University of Bath

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 36

uniofbath

Photo credit: Instagram / @atifh1187

 

 

11. University of Edinburgh 

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 6

uniofedinburgh

Photo credit: Instagram / @zuozuo_1112

 

 

12. London School of Economics 

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 5

lse

Photo credit: Instagram / @kelvinmcnally 

 

 

13. Imperial College London

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 3

imperialcollegelondon

Photo credit: Instagram / @pedroh1962

 

 

14. University College London 

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 4

ucl

Photo credit: Instagram / @jedelshein

 

 

15. University of Exeter

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 17

uniofexeter

Photo credit: Instagram / @lyu_wang

 

 

16. University of Sheffield

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 13

uniofsheffield

Photo credit: Instagram / @hellagood88 

 

 

17. University of York 

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 18

uniofyork

Photo credit: Instagram / @dannyjameshale87

 

 

18. Loughborough University 

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 38

loughboroughuni

Photo credit: Instagram / @sallyhandford

 

 

19. Newcastle University

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 31

newcastleuni

Photo credit: Instagram / @kimleweling 

 

 

20. King's College London 

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 7

kcl

Photo credit: Instagram / @jeanthejenius 

 

 

21. University of Southampton 

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 16

uniofsouthampton

Photo credit: Instagram / @unisotonlibrary 

 

 

22. Cardiff University 

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 29

cardiffuni

Photo credit: Instagram / @shepherd_of_the_forest

 

 

23. University of Glasgow

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 11

uniofglasgow

Photo credit: Instagram / @burkwerth

 

 

24. University of Leicester 

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 26

uniofleicester

Photo credit: Instagram / @justmeamy 

 

 

25. University of Liverpool 

Times Higher Education, Best universities in the UK 2017 ranking: 24

uniofliverpool

Photo credit: Instagram / @ghedin1886

 

 

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