UoM ranked 5th in UK for graduate employability

The University of Manchester has recently been ranked 5^th in the UK for graduate employability.

The QS World University Rankings in graduate employability for 2019 placed UoM 35^th in the world. This makes Manchester graduates the fifth most employable in the UK after Cambridge, Oxford, UCL, and Imperial.

The University of Manchester was the only Northern university to reach the top 5.

The rankings saw 500 universities across the world assessed on several different factors to make up an overall employability score. The factors that carried the most weight were employer reputation and alumni outcomes, making up a total of 55% of the overall total.

QS also looked at the partnerships faculties held with employers and employer/student connections. This involved calculating the number of individual employers who had been actively present on a university’s campus over the last year, alongside establishing which universities had been successfully working with global companies to produce research.

Graduate employment rate and employer/student connections contributed the least to the overall score at 10% each.

However, there is mixed opinion among recent graduates over whether graduating from UoM has helped them with their employability. For graduates such as Kirstie O’Mahony, who graduated in 2017 with a BA in Philosophy, it wasn’t the name of the institution but the extra-curricular opportunities offered at UoM that she felt set her apart:

“For my current job, to put it bluntly, my degree/university meant diddly squat. It was the extra-curricular activities I participated in that made me an ideal candidate”, she told The Mancunion.

“Without a shadow of a doubt I would not be in the industry I’m in without having been involved with the Manchester Media Group. People in senior positions at my workplace are impressed by the experience I got being a part of it, and that’s just phenomenal.

“If you’re going to go to a uni with 40,000 other people, you need something that gives you an edge. The name of the institution you went to alone doesn’t take you very far in my opinion.”

However, she did note that this may be different for graduates of more vocational degree programmes such as engineering or business studies.

Ciaran McLaughlin graduated in summer 2018 with a 2:1 in Maths. Speaking to The Mancunion about his graduate prospects he said: “To be honest I haven’t really been looking for a job yet as I’ve just only found the time to finish my CV. I have got a work placement sorted though but that’s only once a week and I got it due to a family friend.

“I think my experience with Manchester Media Group will be useful. Skills I learned at my time as a Mancunion contributer and being on the Fuse FM committee differ from my degree. It’s actually why I joined the Mancunion in my final year when I realised that by the time I would have finished my degree that I will have not written more than a paragraph since A levels.”

The ranking is a small drop globally and a maintenance nationally from 2018’s rankings, where UoM came in 33^rd internationally but still 5^th in the UK for graduate employability.

Tammy Goldfeld, Head of the Careers Service at UoM, said: “We are very proud of our high ranking in this league table. The University of Manchester is also the most targeted university in the UK by leading graduate recruiters, which means that our students have fantastic opportunities to gain new skills, increase their confidence and build professional networks for the future.”

The University of Manchester also came in 29^thin the QS World University Rankings for 2019, gaining a few places on its 2018 ranking of 34^th.