Revealed: The universities that produce the most CEOs

Some of us are happy in jobs where you work under a manager, but some are more adventurous. Some want to take on the mantle of CEO and run a company themselves.

But if you want to be everyone else’s boss, chances are you’re studying at the London Business School, according to a recent ranking. One in 20 students there become CEOs, CTOS or Partners. Cambridge and Birmingham, at 3.9 per cent and 3.2 per cent respectively, come second and third for the unis who produce the most business leaders.

26,000 graduates from UK universities participated in the study. Emolument.com, which compares job statistics across the country, analysed the percentage of these students who graduated to become leaders in their respective firms. Take a look at the ranking and check if your university is on the list:

C-Suite is slang which refers to a corporation’s most important executive, or chief executive officer (CEO). The data shows statistics for Bachelor and Masters degree only.

It comes to no surprise that London Business School and Cambridge lead the way. These elite institutions are well known for producing ambitious entrepreneurs, and have been heading most rankings for years.

Strathclyde, fourth, and Leeds Metropolitan, fifth, emerge as the  surprises on this list. Other outsiders like Sheffield and Brunel also rank among the top ten, stripping regular chart-toppers such as Oxford, Kings, LSE, or Imperial of their place on the list. This may be because alumni from mid-tier universities such Leicester, Strathclyde, or Brunel are less likely to be employed by large Banks and Consultancies than the “aristocrats” of education, and are therefore more likely to engage in launching their own business or joining start ups. Moreover, alumni from top universities often pursue careers with large corporations, where ascending to the top is difficult.

If you want to make money, however, then Oxbridge’s the ones to choose. Oxford, with 3.1 per cent, produces the most alumni with yearly revenues of £500,000, followed by Cambridge, at 2.9 per cent. This list is a little less unpredictable, with usual chart-toppers dominating the list.