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Posted Nov. 4, 2025
Universities to choose for the best graduate prospects
Students choose to go to university for many reasons – life fulfilment, exploring a new area of interest, career progression, learn a new skill, even indecision – but one of the key reasons to attend university, as a postgraduate or an undergraduate student is future employability. And according to recent rankings published by Times Higher Education, certain universities prepare graduates for careers better than others.
The Global Employability University Rankings 2026 have been designed by the human resources consultancy Emerging, and provide a list of the top 250 universities worldwide that leading recruiters believe best prepare students for working life and getting a job. The universities that were assessed to compile these rankings are from over 40 different countries, and the voting employers could vote for institutions from their own country as well as those based in overseas locations.
Global University Employability Rankings 2026
There has been some movement amongst the top institutions for employability since last year’s Global University Employability Rankings 2025, but for the most part, the same US and UK institutions retain the highest spots.
This table provides details of the top 20 universities for employability, comparing them against their position in the rankings last year.
|
Ranking 2026 |
Ranking 2025 |
University |
Country |
|
1 |
1 |
Massachusetts Institution of Technology (MIT) |
US |
|
2 |
3 |
Stanford University |
US |
|
3 |
2 |
California Institute of Technology (Caltech) |
US |
|
4 |
5 |
University of Cambridge |
UK |
|
5 |
7 |
University of Oxford |
UK |
|
6 |
16 |
University of California, Berkeley |
US |
|
7 |
4 |
Harvard University |
US |
|
8 |
9 |
National University of Singapore |
Singapore |
|
9 |
10 |
Imperial College London |
UK |
|
10 |
17 |
ETH Zurich |
Switzerland |
|
11 |
8 |
University of Tokyo |
Japan |
|
12 |
11 |
Peking University |
China |
|
13 |
13 |
Technical University of Munich (TUM) |
Germany |
|
14 |
6 |
Princeton University |
US |
|
15 |
21 |
Carnegie Mellon University |
US |
|
16 |
19 |
Tsinghua University |
China |
|
17 |
18 |
IE University |
Spain |
|
18 |
15 |
Columbia University |
US |
|
19 |
23 |
London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) |
UK |
|
20 |
14 |
University of Tornonto |
Canada |
Best UK universities for graduate prospects
Although universities in the United States dominate these rankings, an impressive 16 universities in the UK also feature in this new best 250 universities for employment listings. Plus, institutions from China, Germany and France are also well represented amongst the top 250.
This table shows which UK universities made the grade, and where they feature globally.
|
UK Ranking 2026 |
Global Ranking 2026 |
University |
|
1 |
4 |
University of Cambridge |
|
2 |
5 |
University of Oxford |
|
3 |
9 |
Imperial College London |
|
4 |
19 |
London School of Economics & Political Science |
|
5 |
56 |
University of Manchester |
|
6 |
65 |
King’s College London |
|
7 |
98 |
|
|
8 |
130 |
|
|
9 |
139 |
University of St Andrews |
|
10 |
142 |
|
|
11 |
159 |
|
|
12 |
193 |
|
|
13 |
200 |
|
|
14 |
204 |
|
|
15 |
227 |
|
|
16 |
233 |
Loughborough University |
How were these rankings created?
The Global Employability University Rankings were created by assessing employers’ perceptions alongside recruitment experience of around 1,000 nominated universities. The basic premise to collate the final list of 250 institutions was, “which universities do employers believe train the best talents, and why?”, and the methodology was employed via a series of steps.
1. Employer Insights
Survey of global employers with over five years’ experience of recruiting and/or supervising at least five graduates per year.
2. Voting Process
Employers ranked 10-15 universities from the list of 1,000, justifying each vote by up to two ‘Employability Drivers’.
3. University Selection
Employers identify which ‘Employability Drivers’ determined their choices – Work Expertise; Graduate Skills; Specialisation; Social Impact & Leadership; Academic Performance; Internationality; and Reputation.
4. Criteria
Top 250 universities for employability created by counting the highest number of validated votes.
Read full details of the methodology here.
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