In today’s economy you need a little more from your university than a very expensive piece of paper. If you want your dream job, then some universities are better than others.
Here’s the best 25 universities in Europe for graduate employability. In all of these universities, the probability of finding a job is over 50% – which means you only need to study a bit harder than the guy sitting next to you in class, and you’re practically ensured a job as soon as you graduate.
#1. University of Cambridge
Employability rating: 94.1%
Location: Cambridge, UK
Number of Students: 19,515
Style: Very traditional and very old (founded c. 1209), almost a universe apart from the rest of the world.
Fact: Some of its alumni include: Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawking, Virginia Woolf, C.S. Lewis and A.A. Milne!
#2. University of Oxford
Employability rating: 92.3%
Location: Oxford, UK
Number of Students: 22,602
Style: Just as posh and ‘Old England’ as Cambridge. Despite the stuffy tradition, both are exceptional places of learning.
Fact: The stairs of Christ Church College were used as the stairs to the Great Hall in Harry Potter movies.
#3. Ecole Polytechnique
Employability rating: 86%
Location: Paris, France
Number of Students: 2,888
Style: Small, elitist and military, with a historical connection to French liberalism.
Fact: The academy played a huge role in French history, including resisting attacks of the 6th Coalition and leading the French Revolution of 1848. However, women weren’t allowed in until 1972.
#4. ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)
Employability rating: 76%
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Number of Students: 18,616
Style: Scientific and technological.
Fact: Albert Einstein worked as a professor there in 1921 when he received his Nobel Prize.
#5. University of Leeds
Employability rating: 72.1%
Location: Leeds, UK
Number of Students: 31,030
Style: ‘Red Brick University, large typical northern English university, with a mix of students, including some posh ‘Rah’ types.
Fact: The Who recorded their famous album ‘Live at Leeds’ at the uni.
#6. University of Edinburgh
Employability rating: 69.2%
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Number of Students: 35,582
Style: Traditional and beautiful, it’s populated by Scotland and England’s elite (and plenty of its normal Britons too).
Fact: Edinburgh’s student newspaper, ‘The Student’, was founded by Robert Louis Stevenson, the man who wrote ‘Treasure Island’. It’s the country oldest.
#7. Ecole Centrale de Paris
Employability rating: 65.9%
Location: Paris, France
Number of Students: 1,394
Style: Extremely selective and prestigious, the school is technical and scientific.
Fact: Gustave Eiffel is a famous alumni.
#8. Technische Universität Darmstadt
Employability rating: 64.4%
Location: Darmstadt, Germany
Number of Students: 25,100
Style: Research university with a large student body and technical focus.
Fact: It was the first university in the world to set up a department for electrical engineering.
#9. Loughborough University
Employability rating: 62.4%
Location: Loughborough, UK
Number of Students: 16,557
Style: Specialist, media-sized, in a small town, with a huge focus on sport.
Fact: Famous athletes that have studied there include: The President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Sebastian Coe, Paula Radcliffe and Tanni Grey-Thompson.
#10. Politecnico di Milano
Employability rating: 61.5%
Location: Milan, Italy
Number of Students: 41,442
Style: Large uni, specialising in engineering, architecture and design
Fact: Giulio Natta got the Nobel Prize in Chemistry whilst working at the university.
#11. Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen
Employability rating: 61.2%
Location: Aachen, Germany
Number of Students: 42,000
Style: A large city-based university with close links to industry.
Fact: The city was 70% destroyed when Aachen fell to the allies in 1944.
#12. Delft University of Technology
Employability rating: 60.3%
Location: Delft, The Netherlands
Number of Students: 19,613
Style: Scientific, with a research tradition, based in a small city (Under 100,000).
Fact: It’s the largest and oldest public technical college in Holland, founded in 1842 King William II of the Netherlands.
#13. Durham University
Employability rating: 60.2%
Location: Durham, UK
Number of Students: 17,595
Style: Old, tradition and a little pompous, in a small medieval-style town.
Fact: The university has the highest number of inter-student marriages (72%). The British elite never do spread it around.
#14. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Employability rating: 58.4%
Location: Vaud, Switzerland
Number of Students: 5,205
Style: Small student body, in a small city, with a research and technology focus.
Fact: When the university first started, in 1853, it had just 11 students.
#15. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Employability rating: 57.3%
Location: London, UK
Number of Students: 10,600
Style: Historically left-wing, and slightly anti-establishment it was founded by Fabian Society members.
Fact: LSE has, reportedly, educated the most billionaires of any university in Europe.
#16. Universidad de Navarra
Employability rating: 57.5%
Location: Pamplona, Spain
Number of Students: 13,000
Style: A medium-sized university with a teaching hospital and engineering focus, in one of Spain’s biggest cities.
Fact: The university has a Catholic connection, and is partly founded by the Holy See.
#17. Universitat de Barcelona (UB)
Employability rating: 56.1%
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Number of Students: 90,644
Style: Huge, old and prestigious university that prides itself on its research.
Fact: The university was actually founded in Naples by the King Alfonso V of Aragon in 1450.
#18. University of Amsterdam
Employability rating: 57.3%
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Number of Students: 31,186
Style: The biggest in Holland, in it’s biggest city. Modern and historic.
Fact: The university has produced 6 Nobel Laureates and five Prime Ministers of the Netherlands.
#19. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Employability rating: 53.4%
Location: Munich, Germany
Number of Students: 50,542
Style: Old, with a huge student body (The second largest in Germany).
Fact: Sophie Scholl was beheaded in 1943 for being a prominent member of The White Rose group that opposed the Nazi’s at the university.
#20. Technische Universität München
Employability rating: 54.3%
Location: Munich, Germany
Number of Students: 39,081
Style: Technological and, like most German universities, has a huge amount of students.
Fact: Yet, it’s got a giant slide. It’s built to a mathematical formula that means you slow down at the end.
#21. University of Bath
Employability rating: 55.9%
Location: Bath, UK
Number of Students: 16,820
Style: Part of the Russel group. A high-level university in a rich, and beautiful, southern town.
Fact: Their library never closes, 24/7. Truly 24hr.
#22. University of Southampton
Employability rating: 54.2%
Location: Southampton, UK
Number of Students: 23,795
Style: Lots of students who failed to get into Oxbridge. It is a high-quality and very typically ‘Southern’ university.
Fact: The university was founded to be the school for the elite of the city’s industrial classes, not for everyone, like its northern counterparts.
#23. Aston University
Employability rating: 52.7%
Location: Birmingham, UK
Number of Students: 11,065
Style: Young, down to earth, polytechnic. Less snobby than traditional British unis.
Fact: With Birmingham being a traditional industrial city, alongside Manchester it birthed the industrial revolution, Aston University started out as a School of Metallurgy.
#24. Lancaster University
Employability rating: 52.9%
Location: Lancaster, UK
Number of Students: 12,965
Style: Small, high-quality, ‘Russel Group’ university, in a traditional northern country town.
Fact: Despite being one of Britain’s best, Lancaster was only founded in 1964, in part of Harold Wilson’s great university expansion.
#25. University of Liverpool
Employability rating: 53%
Location: Liverpool, UK
Number of Students: 19,573
Style: A typical, and high-quality, northern ‘Red Brick’ university, in a proud, cheap and unique city.
Fact: Despite having the 5th biggest endowment in the UK, the university was almost instrumental in the eradication of Smallpox, with research conducted by Allan Downie from 1943 to 1966.
[Results were compiled from the QS Graduate Employability Rankings]
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