We're delighted to share the news that graduates from the University of Nottingham continue to be among the most sought-after by the UK’s top employers - a newly published league table has revealed.

The Graduate Market is an independent annual review of graduate vacancies and starting salaries at the country’s 100 leading firms and the University of Nottingham has been placed third in the latest report, which ranks the top 20 universities targeted by employers.

We caught up with the Careers and Employability team to find out how we're ensuring our graduates get off to the best possible start in their careers.

Graduation-high-fliers

Conducted by High Fliers Research, The Graduate Market report is based on two rounds of in-depth research with final year students graduating in the summer of 2024 and interviews with over 14,000 finalists.

It found that for the third year running graduate starting salaries at the UK’s leading graduate employers are set to increase this year, to a new median starting salary of £34,000.

Stuart Marriott, Associate Director of the university’s Careers and Employability Service, explains how the ranking is a reflection of the work being done to give University of Nottingham students the edge over other graduates.

“We’ve got fantastic connections with the country’s top employers and we take the time and effort to understand exactly what they’re looking for." Our students are really ambitious – and so are we. We know that 89% of them are in high-level graduate work or study 15 months after graduation. That’s one of the best outcomes in the country. We’ve got fantastic connections with the country’s top employers and we take the time and effort to understand exactly what they’re looking for.
Stuart Marriott

Graduate case study: Onder Bostanci

Among the thousands of graduates who have benefited from the university’s expert careers support and close ties to industry is Onder Bostanci.

Originally from Turkey, he came to the UK to pursue a career in financial services.

“When I was applying for jobs, everybody knew the University of Nottingham,” said Onder, who studied for an MSc in Banking and Finance that included a Chartered Banker Diploma.

Now a Senior Manager at PwC in London, he initially found it difficult to secure his dream job.

“That’s when I reached out to the university’s Careers and Employability Service,” he explained. “They gave me feedback on my CV, as well as helping with how I articulated things and presented myself at interviews. The important thing was that they invested time in me.

“Along with the Careers and Employability Service, my professors also had really good links with the industry – and not many universities have that. They knew the finance industry and that meant my dissertation was applicable to real-life banking problem-solving, which was so important.

“I would definitely recommend the university to anyone who wants to follow a similar path to me,” he said. “Only yesterday I was speaking to a former colleague whose son has offers from Nottingham and a few other places. I told him not to even debate it, choose Nottingham.”

Onder-Bostanci-high-fliers

Strong industry partnerships

The University of Nottingham has also been named one of the strongest in the country for work placements.

The Rate My Placement Best Universities for Work Experience poll ranked Nottingham second among Russell Group universities, ahead of the likes of Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Warwick.

Chris Colegate, Careers and Employability Consultant for Placements, said it was testament to the strong industry partnerships that have been forged by the university.

“We currently have around 600 students on placement who are gaining valuable experience from a year spent in industry,” he said. “The student feedback that informs this ranking tells us they feel they’re getting great support in finding placements and benefiting from the services we offer.”

Kameron Farnejad, a third year Financial Mathematics student, is currently spending a year’s placement as a Wealth and Personal Banking intern at HSBC.

He said: “There was so much help available from the Careers and Employability Service. I signed up for a CV workshop, had interview sessions and also got a lot of great advice around how to research companies. They helped with the whole application process.

“I’m really enjoying my placement. It’s incredibly useful in terms of the connections I’m building and the work I’m doing is helping me build technical and soft skills which will be invaluable for the future career I want to pursue. I feel so much more confident now about coming into the workplace once I graduate.”

Top performing subject areas

The university also continues to see success in a variety of subject areas, showcasing the breadth of talent and expertise across the university.

In the latest QS World University rankings by subject area, the University of Nottingham has 19 wide-ranging subjects ranked in the top 100 for their subject area.

Pharmacy and Pharmacology continues to perform strongly, ranked 12th on the global scale, with subjects like Law, Psychology, Engineering and Education also performing well.

The potential for students to study at a top institution extends to subject areas including Linguistics, Nursing and sports-related subjects, all receiving recognition in the 2024 QS World University rankings.

Careers and Employability - here to help

Whether you are only just starting out on your career path as a new graduate, or are more established in your career, the university's Careers and Employability Service is on hand to provide help and support.

Receive graduate jobs direct into your email inbox, book a one-to-one appointment with one of our careers advisors or simply read one of the team's helpful blogs.

Visit our Careers and Employability homepage >