These are the unis targeted by the most graduate employers in 2021

A new report has revealed the unis targeted by the most top grad employers – and Oxford and Cambridge don’t top the list.

The research by High Fliers on the state of the grad job market paints a bleak picture – the number of grads hired to jobs at the country’s top firms fell by 12 per cent, while applications rose 41 per cent compared to 2019-20.

Overall, 3,700 fewer grads than expected landed jobs in 2020, the biggest fall since the 2008 financial crisis.

So if you’re trying to maximise your odds, perhaps you should’ve gone to one of these unis.

The unis targeted by the largest number of grad employers in 2021:

1. Birmingham

2. Manchester

3. UCL

4. Nottingham

5. Leeds

6. Warwick

7. Bristol

8. Cambridge

9. Oxford

10. Imperial

11. LSE

12. Durham

13. Edinburgh

14. KCL

15. Sheffield

16. Exeter

17. Bath

18. Queen Mary

19. Newcastle

20. York

While the list is composed mostly of Russell Group unis, there are five absences – Cardiff, Southampton, QUB, Glasgow, and Liverpool. Bath is the only one on the list that isn’t from the Russell Group.

However, if you’re not at one of these unis, there might be good news. High Fliers found that recruiters had started to switch from going after specific unis to targeting students nationally. How egalitarian.

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