Mock TEF: the best UK universities for graduate jobs

See the top UK universities for graduate employability, according to predictions for the teaching excellence framework

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Carly Minsky

June 23 2016

If you want to know which UK universities give you the best chance of securing a professional job upon graduation, there are two ways to look at it.

In absolute terms, the prestigious Russell Group universities, which include University of Cambridge, are some of the best universities for graduate employment.

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But when the data are benchmarked for contextual factors such as student demographics, entry qualifications and degree subjects studied at the university, it turns out that a very different group of universities is actually exceeding expectations when it comes to graduate employability.

This is according to Times Higher Education’s predictions for the UK government’s teaching excellence framework (TEF), a government initiative that is set to evaluate and monitor the quality of teaching at English universities.

More mock TEF predictions

Best UK universities for completion rates

University of Sussex is also a standout performer for graduate destinations; not only is it second place for exceeding expectations, it also makes the top 5 positions using raw scores.

London universities are well-represented at the top of the table when sorted by the raw scores. But after benchmarking, many London institutions drop significantly down the ranks, indicating that graduate success in the city could be at least partly due to factors not directly related to the universities’ own efforts.

In fact, the Midlands of England is a good bet for study destinations, since its universities – including University of Birmingham – generally score highly for graduate employment.

Graduate employment is evaluated by a marker that measures the proportion of university leavers who go into "professional-level" jobs or postgraduate study, benchmarked by subject mix, students' entry qualifications, age, ethnicity and gender. The full methodology is available here.

Mock TEF: UK universities ranked by graduate destinations

Sorted by benchmarked scores

Benchmarked rank	University	Graduate destination (distance from benchmark)	Graduate destination (absolute score)
1	De Montfort University	14	77
2	University of Sussex	13	84
=3	University of Cambridge	10	89
=3	University of Kent	10	77
=3	Robert Gordon University	10	81
=6	Swansea University	9	80
=6	Coventry University	9	73
=6	University of Huddersfield	9	85
=6	University of Birmingham	9	73
=6	Lancaster University	9	82
=6	Loughborough University	9	83
=12	Durham University	8	83
=12	Aston University	8	79
=12	University of Bath	8	85
=12	University of Lincoln	8	70
16	University of Hertfordshire	7	74
=17	Middlesex University	6	65
=17	Imperial College London	6	91
=17	Heriot-Watt University	6	77
=20	University of Bradford	5	73
=20	Trinity University	5	66
=20	University of Exeter	5	79
=23	St Mary's University, Twickenham	4	66
=23	Keele University	4	75
=23	Trent University	4	66
=23	University of Surrey	4	78
=27	University of Nottingham	3	80
=27	University College London	3	83
=27	University of Dundee	3	79
=27	University of Oxford	3	80
=27	City University London	3	85
=27	King's College London	3	78
=27	University of Leeds	3	78
=34	University of Warwick	2	79
=34	Bangor University	2	78
=34	London School of Economics and Political Science	2	66
=34	University of Portsmouth	2	66
=38	University of Stirling	1	72
=38	Cardiff University	1	79
=38	Abertay University	1	65
=38	University of Sunderland	1	62
=38	University of Roehampton	1	60
=38	University of York	1	75
=38	University of Edinburgh	1	79
=38	University of Glasgow	1	78
=38	York St John University	1	65
=38	University of Southampton	1	77
=38	University of the West of England	1	70
=49	University of Essex	0	63
=49	University of Reading	0	70
=49	Queen's University Belfast	0	78
=49	Bishop Grosseteste University	0	68
=49	University of Hull	0	66
=49	Manchester Metropolitan University	0	63
=49	University of Bristol	0	79
=49	University of Aberdeen	0	73
=49	University of Winchester	0	60
=49	Newcastle University	0	78
=59	Soas, University of London	-1	67
=59	University of Manchester	-1	78
=59	Glyndwr University	-1	66
=59	Aberystwyth University	-1	62
=59	Bournemouth University	-1	66
=59	Birmingham City University	-1	64
=65	University of Worcester	-2	63
=65	Northumbria University	-2	66
=65	University of Cumbria	-2	64
=65	University of Sheffield	-2	75
=65	London South Bank University	-2	67
=65	University of Brighton	-2	66
=65	Brunel University London	-2	63
=65	University of Bolton	-2	60
=65	University of Chester	-2	63
=65	Kingston University	-2	60
=65	Sheffield Hallam University	-2	64
=65	Oxford Brookes University	-2	68
=77	Edinburgh Napier University	-3	68
=77	University of Bedfordshire	-3	58
=77	University of Central Lancashire	-3	62
=77	University of West London	-3	60
=77	Anglia Ruskin University	-3	64
=77	University of Liverpool	-3	75
=77	University of Leicester	-3	71
=77	University of St Mark & St John	-3	60
=77	University of Northampton	-3	70
=77	University of East Anglia	-3	59
=77	University of Chichester	-3	56
=88	Queen Mary University of London	-4	72
=88	Southampton Solent University	-4	54
=88	University of Greenwich	-4	58
=88	University of Derby	-4	59
=88	Leeds Beckett University	-4	58
=88	Edge Hill University	-4	63
=88	University of Wolverhampton	-4	54
=95	Liverpool John Moores University	-5	62
=95	Royal Holloway, University of London	-5	62
=95	Glasgow Caledonian University	-5	70
=95	University of Strathclyde	-5	72
=99	University of South Wales	-6	58
=99	Staffordshire University	-6	57
=99	University of Westminster	-6	55
=99	University of St Andrews	-6	70
=99	Buckinghamshire New University	-6	57
=99	Canterbury Christ Church University	-6	57
=105	Bath Spa University	-7	55
=105	Goldsmiths, University of London	-7	55
=105	University of Gloucestershire	-7	55
=105	University of the West of Scotland	-7	63
=105	University of Salford	-7	59
110	Cardiff Metropolitan University	-8	57
=111	Plymouth University	-9	59
=111	Liverpool Hope University	-9	53
=111	Teesside University	-9	59
=111	Ulster University	-9	62
=111	Newman University	-9	52
116	University Campus Suffolk	-10	55
117	London Metropolitan University	-11	47
118	University of Wales Trinity Saint David	-12	50
119	University of East London	-13	45
120	Queen Margaret University	-16	56

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