Top employers target students at these 20 UK unis the most – Oxbridge are so far down

Many UK uni students cling to the hope that a recruiter at a grad fair will pluck them out of obscurity, sign them up to a morally dubious £500,000 a year grad scheme, and sort out all their problems. If this is your dream, you might want to reconsider your choice of uni. A new report has revealed the 20 UK unis that employers target the most in 2025, and they might not be the unis you expect.

High Fliers Research is the organisation that runs The UK Graduate Careers Survey and helps compile The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers books you’ve probably seen sitting in your uni library. Their latest report, The Graduate Market in 2025, reveals the 20 unis where the most top employers tried to recruit students in the 2024/2025 academic year.

The report defines “top employers” as the 100 companies that hire the most grads in the UK. Many of these companies will actively go on the prowl for students at careers fairs on campuses, or advertise roles through careers advisors, or participate in virtual events for specific unis. But, these employers don’t hire as many grads as they used to. Graduate recruitment dropped by a huge 14.6 per cent in 2024. The UK’s top employers only bother to seek out students at an average of 24 unis. So, picking a uni based on this list could really make a difference to you.

Just smile for the pics and ignore the recurring thoughts of unemployment and doom x

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The top employers’ fav unis are mostly part of the Russell Group. The University of Bath is the only uni outside the Russell Group to make it onto the list. Yay for them. Five Russell Group unis didn’t make it onto the top 20: Cardiff University, Newcastle University, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Queen’s University Belfast and the University of York. It’s super surprising that LSE isn’t in the top 20, as this uni slayed in many of 2025’s league tables. LSE came third in the Complete University Guide, fourth in the Daily Mail’s ranking and fourth in the Guardian University Guide. Yet apparently, top employers aren’t caught up with the LSE hype.

Although Oxbridge are supposed to be the most prestigious unis in the UK, the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford are pretty far down on the list. Erm, maybe employers assume Oxbridge students are too focused on their essays to function in the real world?

So, here are the 20 UK unis that top employers target the most, according to High Fliers Research:

20. University of Liverpool

19. University of Oxford

18. University of Sheffield

17. Queen Mary University of London

16. King’s College London (KCL)

15. University of Cambridge

Well, if Cambridge students fail to find jobs, they can still go punting?

14. University of Glasgow

13. University of Edinburgh

12. University of Southampton

11. University College London (UCL)

10. Durham University

9. Imperial College London

8. University of Exeter

It is compulsory for all Exeter grads to take a minimum of 20 pics by this one sign

7. University of Bath

6. University of Leeds

5. University of Bristol

4. University of Warwick

3. University of Nottingham

2. University of Manchester

1. University of Birmingham

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