Published today (19 September) the 2020 QS Graduate Employability Rankings places Newcastle University among the top two hundred universities surveyed in the world, with a ranking now in the range 161-170 globally.

The QS Survey is conducted annually and seeks to compare the employability of graduates from higher education institutions across the world. In so doing it considers factors such as the reputation of universities with employers, how connected universities are to companies and the skills and abilities of the graduates they produce.

Graduate employment

Marc Lintern, Newcastle University’s Director of Student Experience, said of the increase in position from last year: “Our graduates are highly sought after by recruiters. This is reflected in our excellent record of graduate employment, with 95% of our 2016 UK and EU graduates entering employment or further study within six months of graduating – and more than 85% of these in graduate level roles. The positive move in this influential guide demonstrates once more the high quality of support we offer to our outstanding students and graduates to help them achieve ongoing success.

“The strong performance in the survey is recognition of a huge amount of work which has gone into this area from across the University. This will help ensure that we continue providing our students with the best possible opportunities for personal and professional development.”

Graduate prospects

Newcastle University student Amy Constantine completed a placement year in a marketing role with the Newcastle University Careers Service. During her placement, Amy has been involved in setting up large events, such as recruitment fairs and creative careers showcases.

The Politics and History undergraduate said: “Even before getting a placement, I believe that just the job hunting process helped me discover roles out there and made me aware of some personal preferences that I never knew I had before.”

The guide, which includes 758 institutions, is based on responses from almost 45,000 employers. It analysed 40,800 degrees and affiliations of over 29,000 high-achievers, considered more than 150,000 employers' connections with graduates, and evaluated nearly 320,000 work placement partnerships for this 2020 edition.

The 2020 QS Graduate Employability Rankings is the latest guide to rank Newcastle University’s graduates among the best professionals in the UK and the world.

The Complete University Guide 2020 University League Tables​, rank Newcastle University in the country's top 10 for graduate prospects - a measure of how employable a student is after graduating with their first degree.

The University is placed third nationally for graduate entrepreneurship, based on the combined revenue of our trading start-ups in the latest Higher Education Business & Community Interaction Survey​ (HEBCIS). The same survey ranks Newcastle third in the UK for the amount of external investment raised by our graduate start-ups, demonstrating their quality and growth potential.​

Newcastle University graduates benefit from careers support for three years after graduation as well as business start-up support on an on-going basis.