These are officially the best UK unis to go to if you want to be a billionaire

Who wants to be a billionaire? Now tuition fees are going up, meal deals cost an extortionate £4, and rent is higher than Chappell Roan’s hairstyles, making loads of cold hard cash suddenly sounds very appealing. Some UK unis are way better at churning out billionaires than others.

QR Code Generator looked into which unis all the UK billionaires on Forbes’ 2024 World’s Billionaires List went to. They ranked all the UK unis by how successful they were at producing billionaires. Most of the unis on this list only churned out one billionaire, so then QR Code Generator ordered the unis by the net worths of those billionaires.

Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the billionaires on this list are old white men. Terrific.

If you didn’t sign up for any of the UK unis on this list, then fret not! 40 per cent of UK billionaires didn’t bother with going to university at all. I guess other qualities – such as common sense, extreme ambition and a complete lack of morals – might be more useful to you than essay-writing skills?

So, here are all the UK unis which are the best at producing billionaires.

17. Aston University

Putting all the other millennials’ productivity to shame
(Image via YouTube)

At the age of 32, Ben Francis has a net worth of £1 billion. Harrowing. He started a degree in international business and management at Aston, but dropped out to start Gymshark. It worked out rather well for him.

16. University of North London

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The 98-year-old founder of River Island, Bernard Lewis, studied at the University of North London back when it was the Northern Polytechnic Institute. His nephew manages River Island now, but his net worth is still £1.14 billion.

15. University of Aberdeen

Ian Wood has made £1.29 billion, mostly from oil in the North Sea. He studied psychology at the University of Aberdeen. He was the head of Robert Gordon University when the uni gave Donald Trump an honorary degree.

14. Anglia Ruskin University

Michael Ashcroft, who’s the former deputy chair of the Tory party has a Higher National Diploma in business studies from Mid-Essex Technical College (which is now Anglia Ruskin University and is mostly in Cambridge, not Essex). He donated lots of money to Anglia Ruskin Uni and now there’s a building named after him. His net worth is £1.52 billion.

13. University of Nottingham

The co-founder of moneysupermarket.com, Simon Nixon, did start an accountancy degree at Notts, but dropped out after a year because it was too boring. He’s now worth £1.52 billion.

12. University of Exeter

Exetaaaaah has spawned one billionaire
(Credit: Richter Frank-Jurgen via Creative Commons)

Sir Dennis Gillings founded the medical research company Quintiles Transnational. His net worth is £1.82 billion. He did his undergrad and PhD in Maths at Exeter, and a Master’s in mathematical statistics from Cambridge.

11. University College London (UCL)

Farhad Moshiri – the businessman who owns Everton Football Club – has a net worth of £2.05 billion. He studied economics and statistics at UCL.

10. Imperial College London

The hedge fund manager and prominent Tory party donor Alan Howard did a Master’s in engineering at Imperial. Forbes estimates his net worth as £2.96 billion.

9. University of Bristol

John Coates runs Bet365 with his sister Denise. He studied law at the University of Bristol. John Coates owns about a quarter of the Bet365 shares. His net worth is £3.27 billion.

8. City St George’s, University of London

The property developer Ian Livingstone went to the City, University of London (which recently merged with St George’s to become the very lengthy City St George’s, University of London). His net worth is £3.57 billion.

7. University of Sheffield

Denise Coates is the only woman on this list. She runs Bet365 with her brother John Coates. Her father Peter Coates started the company. She owns half of the company’s shares, so her net worth is now £7.22 billion. She made £469 million in the 2020/2021 financial year alone.

6. Royal College of Art

(Credit: The Royal Society via Creative Commons)

Sir James Dyson actually studied furniture and interior design at the Royal College of Art in the 1960s, before making lots of vacuum cleaners and money. Forbes says his net worth is now £10.33 billion.

5. University of Birmingham

Sir Jim Ratcliffe used to be the richest person in the UK. He studied chemical engineering at the Uni of Brum. He’s also now a shareholder of Manchester United? His business ventures have made him £12.53 billion.

4. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Is it really surprising that the most money-orientated uni produced a billionaire? The hedge fund manager Michael Platt has an eye-watering net worth of £13.67 billion.

3. University College London (UCL)

Two billionaires came out of UCL. Farhad Moshiri – the businessman who owns Everton Football Club – has a net worth of £2.05 billion. He studied economics and statistics at UCL. Stephen Rubin made £1.82 billion by selling lots of shoes and swimwear through JD Sports and Speedo. He graduated from UCL with a law degree in 1958.

2. University of Oxford

Oxford’s three billionaires have a total net worth of £4.18 billion. Michael Spencer is a businessman who also started a charity to rescue rhinos. Alex Beard used to be the CEO of an oil company. Chris Rokos started a hedge fund company.

1. University of Cambridge

Cambridge has produced a concerning three billionaires. Their total net worth is £9.8 billion – over twice the amount of money that the Oxford millionaires have. Mark Coombs is a businessman and a banker. Andrew Currie and John Reece run chemicals companies.