Seen a lot of threads on here asking about what the target rankings are for UK unis so decided to make a list updated for 2023.
Tier 1:
Oxbridge, LSE, UCL, Warwick, Imperial
Tier 1.5
Durham
Tier 2:
Notts, Bristol, Exeter
Tier 3:
KCL, QMUL, Manchester, Leeds, York
Tier 4:
Bayes, Surrey
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Missing Reading Uni
Tier 2?
Where would Reading Uni rank??
Tier 57
Del
St Andrew's should be there as a Tier 2 (or 3?) perhaps on the list.
Only issue with St Andrews is it’s not a Russel Group or Red Brick so your resume is automatically rejected for some positions and I’ve had headhunters so they don’t care for it. Dumb considering how well it’s been placing the last few years (1 or 2 overall) but that might be a case of how well they handled the pandemic rather than regularly scheduled education. Would love to hear others experience on the matter.
Not to deter anyone, we did have students go to BBs, MBB, and PE funds so it’s totally doable.
10/10 would do again.
Placing Warwick, UCL and Imperial (and even LSE to a degree) in the same tier as Oxbridge..
It's just in terms of recruitment.
Apart from ‘prestige’ and historical culture, what roles or preference do Oxbridge students land that Warwick, UCL, LSE, Imperial students cannot? Apart from maybe large cap PE out of undergrad or MBB, I don’t think there’s many things exclusive to Oxbridge nowadays compared to in the past nor the propulsion it once did. Great place to become a future PM/Chancellor tho.
At best you can call WW/UCL/Imp at T1.5
My list would be:
Tier 1:
Oxford, LSE, UCL, Warwick, Imperial
Tier 1.5:
Durham
Tier 2:
Nottingham, Bristol, Bath
Tier 3:
KCL, York, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bayes, Exeter
Tier 4:
QMUL, Leeds, Surrey,
Rationale:
Tier 1 is self-explanatory, these are widely known as the target universities. Durham in tier 1.5 because they place extraordinarily well in finance, loads of people coming from there and lots of love being shown to them by companies.
Tier 2 includes the likes of Nottingham, Bristol, Bath. Nottingham churns out SW after SW holder. They place very well, but not all of their courses are as targeted. Bath has exclusive industrial placement schemes which even some of the targets do not have access to - you can land an exclusive 6 month placement at Citi, e.g., through their careers services.
Tier 3 includes those universities whose candidates do well, but lack a strong investment banking culture insofar not that many people apply to make it worthwhile for banks to recruit heavily from. That said, these universities still have decent representation. E.g., Bayes is pretty self-explanatory, good business school. Manchester is a large university, prestigious courses, so unsurprising. York is a smaller university, but punches above its weight with e.g., BofA sponsorship and plenty of strong candidates going into FO roles. And so on.
Tier 4 are universities which are not targeted in a meaningful capacity by the big banks, but strong candidates still can make it through, but will need to work harder than most. I don't think Leeds can rank above a tier 4 in terms of recruitment, I haven't really seen anyone from Leeds in FO roles, at least not as of recent.
These targetings by firms are not a static either, they do change. From what I understand, Bayes and York were far stronger many years ago with all major banks visiting their campuses, than now.
Pretty sure there is a kid from Leeds who is absolutely killing it re placements. Though I think that kid is more of an exception as Leeds is pretty bad for FO placements as you said.
I'll put Bayes in Tier 2 because they recruit really well for banking roles!
Source? Curious
Hey I got an offer from both Nottingham and Bristol. Since they're in the same tier I dont know which to pick. Any advice?
Pick whichever university you prefer the course, campus, and city of. Nottingham is a campus uni, Bristol is a city uni.
Studied at Notts and loved it, but I think objectively Bristol is a nicer city.
Your choice will be personal and driven by:
I went to Surrey and even I'm surprised to see them on this list
Thanks Intern
No worries analyst 1
Yeah, I'm Tier 2! What a time to be alive
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