These are the unis you need to go to if you want to land a job at a Big Four firm

It’s not a great time to be a university student in the UK. You’ve had your education increasingly reduced to pre-recorded Zoom lectures. In fact, you are hardly going to uni this term because of the endless strikes, but that’s grand, it gives you more time to spend in your mould infested student house. And of course, for this excellent experience, you are paying an absolute fortune. The government estimates if you joined university in 2021, you are set to walk out with £45,800 of debt when you graduate.

So why not use uni to get ahead. If the system is going to take advantage of you. Why not use the system to get yourself a nice well paying job at a Big Four firm. If you aren’t deep in the rat race of applying to grad jobs and are wondering what on earth are the Big Four?? Fear not. The Big Four refers to the four largest accountancy firms in the world: Deloitte, PwC, KPMG and EY. These professional services powerhouses are globally respected and are some of the most hotly contested grad schemes each year.

They also tend to pay very well. Will your friends potentially refer to you as a City wanker? Yes. But it’s a small price to pay when you can actually afford your £7 pint in central London and your firm is flying you business class to New York to look at some spreadsheets.

Using LinkedIn data, CMC Markets has worked out which universities have the most graduates working for a Big Four firm. They’ve broken it down between the four companies and compared the total number against the number of students at each university. So whether you are considering which uni to apply to, are at university and desperately looking where to do your Master’s, or simply want to brag that your uni has the most Big Four grads, here’s a complete breakdown of which unis to go to, to have the best chance of landing that coveted grad job.

Universities ranked by number of alumni who list themselves on LinkedIn as working for a Big Four firm:

1. LSE – 5,776 students

2. The University of Manchester – 3,487 students

3. University of Cambridge – 3,401 students

4. UCL – 3,107 students

5. University of Nottingham – 3,043 students

6. University of Birmingham – 2,897 students

7. University of Warwick – 2,712 students

8. University of Leeds – 2,710 students

9. Durham University – 2,702 students

10. University of Oxford – 2,567 students

11. University of Bristol – 2,363 students

12. Oxford Brookes University – 2,355 students

13. Queen’s University Belfast – 2,339 students

14. University of Exeter – 2,191 students

15. University of Leicester – 1,813 students

16. University of Lancaster – 1,732 students

17. University of Bath – 1,708 students

18. Imperial College London – 1,705 students

19. Queen Mary, University of London – 1,665 students

20. University of Southampton – 1,597 students

21. Loughborough University – 1,340 students

22. Heriot-Watt Univeristy – 991 students

23. University of St. Andrews – 927 students

24. Royal Holloway – 739 students

25. SOAS University of London – 450 students

Related articles recommended by this writer:

• Ranked: The Russell Group unis where students are paying the most in rent

• Ranked: The eye-watering salaries of all the Russell Group uni vice-chancellors

• Revealed: The Russell Group unis that have up to 25 per cent fewer freshers this year

Featured image before edits via BBC iPlayer