Make way, Oxbridge: Students from these Russell Group unis get the best jobs in 2025

Nabbing a grad job after uni is an absolute nightmare. You might as well aim for a uni that will maximise your chances of getting one, right? Even among the UK’s super prestigious Russell Group unis, the percentage of grads who are getting high-skilled jobs varies quite a lot in 2025.

The Daily Mail University Guide 2026 is out, and includes data on exactly how many students from each UK uni get high-skilled jobs. So, here’s a ranking of the best (and worst) Russell Group unis for grad jobs.

Surprisingly, Oxbridge aren’t actually the greatest unis for grad jobs in 2025. 89.5 per cent of University of Oxford grads and 89.5 per cent of University of Cambridge students found high-skilled jobs within 15 months of escaping Oxbridge. A higher percentage actually achieve this at two London unis. And quite a few other UK unis – including UCL and the University of Warwick – aren’t far behind Oxbridge at all.

The Daily Mail worked this out using data from the Graduate Outcomes Survey. The UK’s Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) defines high-skilled job as managers, directors and senior officials, or professional occupations, or associate professional occupations. Basically, the kind of careers that your parents convinced you that you could go into if you went to uni. You can check out exactly which jobs the UK government thinks are “high-skilled” here.

So, here are the best Russell Group unis for grad jobs in 2025, ranked by the proportion of grads who find high-skilled jobs within 15 months:

24. University of Liverpool – 74.8 per cent

23. University of Glasgow – 74.9 per cent

22. Queen Mary University of London – 75.6 per cent

21. Newcastle University – 76.1 per cent

20. University of Exeter – 76.5 per cent

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19. University of York – 77.4 per cent

=17. University of Manchester – 78.5 per cent

=17. University of Sheffield – 78.5 per cent

16. University of Leeds – 79.9 per cent

=14. University of Bristol – 80.1 per cent

=14. University of Edinburgh – 80.1 per cent

13. University of Nottingham – 80.6 per cent

12. University of Birmingham – 80.8 per cent

11. University of Southampton – 80.9 per cent

10. Cardiff University – 81.3 per cent

Ta-da, Cardiff

9. Queen’s University Belfast – 82.4 per cent

8. Durham University – 83.7 per cent

7. King’s College London – 84.5 per cent

6. University of Warwick – 84.8 per cent

5. University College London (UCL) – 87.5 per cent

4. University of Oxford – 88.7 per cent

3. University of Cambridge – 89.5 per cent

2. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – 94.1 per cent

1. Imperial College London – 96.3 per cent

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