university ranking employability 2023

Ranked: Where to go to university to get the best jobs when you graduate

I really, really don’t want to go back to living with my parents…


Getting a good job after you graduate has never been more important. The government’s new plans mean students starting in September will pay back more of their student loan as the repayment threshold – the amount above which you start paying back your student loan – has been lowered.

While current students begin paying back their student loan once they earn above £27,295 a year, it’s now dropping to £25,000 for new students. The timeline across which you pay back your loan has also been extended from 30 years to 40 years.

All of this means, the number of students expected to pay back their loan in full has gone from 23 per cent to more than half (52 per cent) and many new graduates will be paying for their degree into their early 60s.

There’s no doubt it makes for pretty bleak reading. However, a new university league table reveals the UK’s best universities for employability and where to go if you want the best chance of landing a top job.

The Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR) has assessed more than 20,000 different universities around the world to find the 2,000 best performing institutions for employability in 2023.

Rather than judging the number of students in full-time employment after six months like many other league tables, CWUR has measured the professional success of the university’s alumni and how many have held top positions at major companies.

More specifically, it’s measured the number of CEOs your uni has produced who have held positions at one of Forbes top 2000 companies in the world since 2011 compared to its size. This isn’t dealing with getting a dead-end minimum wage job pulling pints behind a bar after three years of paying £9k a year, these are the unis which produce real success.

The best UK universities for employability according to the Centre for World University Rankings 2023: