The Graduate Market in 2015
Universities Targeted by Employers in 2014-2015 With more than 140 universities now offering undergraduate degree courses in the UK, employers have the widest-ever choice of higher education institutions from which to recruit graduates. Very few organisations, if any, have the resources to target all of these universities to promote their graduate opportunities, so most employers focus their recruitment publicity at a more limited number of institutions. For the 2014-2015 recruitment season, the majority of top graduate employers have targeted between 10 and 25 universities each (see Chart 5.6 ), although thirteen employers are currently visiting more than thirty campuses annually for their graduate promotions. Within individual business sectors, accounting & professional services and law firms have actively publicised their graduate vacancies at the largest number of universities, whereas media employers and consulting firms took part in local promotions at the fewest universities (see Chart 5.7 ). The five universities currently targeted by the largest number of leading graduate employers are Manchester, Nottingham, Warwick, Cambridge and Oxford (see Table 5.8 ). These institutions have attracted the largest number of top graduate recruiters for campus fairs, recruitment presentations or other local university promotions during 2014-2015. It is interesting to compare this list with The Times & Sunday Times Good University Guide 2015 , the latest league table of leading institutions compiled from a range of university data including entry standards, teaching performance, academic research, student funding and graduates’ career prospects. In it, Cambridge and Oxford are ranked in joint 1st place but Manchester and Nottingham, the two universities most-targeted by leading employers, fail to even make the top twenty. And conversely, St Andrews and Lancaster which are 3rd and 12th respectively in the guide, do not appear in the employers’ top twenty-five universities.
Chart 5.6 Number of Universities Targeted by Top Employers in 2014-2015
13%
More than 30 universities
8%
26-30 universities
13%
21-25 universities
26%
16-20 universities
Average - 19 universities
18%
11-15 universities
8%
6-10 universities
9%
5 or fewer universities
5%
Not targeting universities
0
10
20
40
50
30
Percentage of top graduate employers
Source - The Graduate Market in 2015
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