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If you want to know which UK universities give you the best chance of securing a professional job upon graduation, there are two ways to look at it.

In absolute terms, the prestigious Russell Group universities, which include 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Cambridge, are some of the best universities for graduate employment.

But when the data are benchmarked for contextual factors such as student demographics, entry qualifications and degree subjects studied at the university, it turns out that a very different group of universities is actually exceeding expectations when it comes to graduate employability.

This is according to Times Higher Education’s predictions for the UK government’s teaching excellence framework (TEF), a government initiative that is set to evaluate and monitor the quality of teaching at English universities. 

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More mock TEF predictions

Best UK universities for completion rates

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51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Sussex is also a standout performer for graduate destinations; not only is it second place for exceeding expectations, it also makes the top 5 positions using raw scores.

London universities are well-represented at the top of the table when sorted by the raw scores. But after benchmarking, many London institutions drop significantly down the ranks, indicating that graduate success in the city could be at least partly due to factors not directly related to the universities’ own efforts.

In fact, the Midlands of England is a good bet for study destinations, since its universities – including 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Birmingham – generally score highly for graduate employment.

Graduate employment is evaluated by a marker that measures the proportion of university leavers who go into "professional-level" jobs or postgraduate study, benchmarked by subject mix, students' entry qualifications, age, ethnicity and gender. The full methodology is available here.

Mock TEF: UK universities ranked by graduate destinations

Sorted by benchmarked scores

Benchmarked rank	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	Graduate destination (distance from benchmark)	Graduate destination (absolute score)
1	De Montfort 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	14	77
2	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Sussex	13	84
=3	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Cambridge	10	89
=3	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Kent	10	77
=3	Robert Gordon 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	10	81
=6	Swansea 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	9	80
=6	Coventry 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	9	73
=6	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Huddersfield	9	85
=6	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Birmingham	9	73
=6	Lancaster 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	9	82
=6	Loughborough 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	9	83
=12	Durham 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	8	83
=12	Aston 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	8	79
=12	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Bath	8	85
=12	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Lincoln	8	70
16	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Hertfordshire	7	74
=17	Middlesex 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	6	65
=17	Imperial College London	6	91
=17	Heriot-Watt 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	6	77
=20	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Bradford	5	73
=20	Trinity 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	5	66
=20	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Exeter	5	79
=23	St Mary's 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ, Twickenham	4	66
=23	Keele 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	4	75
=23	Trent 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	4	66
=23	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Surrey	4	78
=27	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Nottingham	3	80
=27	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ College London	3	83
=27	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Dundee	3	79
=27	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Oxford	3	80
=27	City 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ London	3	85
=27	King's College London	3	78
=27	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Leeds	3	78
=34	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Warwick	2	79
=34	Bangor 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	2	78
=34	London School of Economics and Political Science	2	66
=34	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Portsmouth	2	66
=38	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Stirling	1	72
=38	Cardiff 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	1	79
=38	Abertay 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	1	65
=38	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Sunderland	1	62
=38	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Roehampton	1	60
=38	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of York	1	75
=38	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Edinburgh	1	79
=38	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Glasgow	1	78
=38	York St John 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	1	65
=38	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Southampton	1	77
=38	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of the West of England	1	70
=49	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Essex	0	63
=49	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Reading	0	70
=49	Queen's 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ Belfast	0	78
=49	Bishop Grosseteste 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	0	68
=49	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Hull	0	66
=49	Manchester Metropolitan 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	0	63
=49	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Bristol	0	79
=49	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Aberdeen	0	73
=49	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Winchester	0	60
=49	Newcastle 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	0	78
=59	Soas, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of London	-1	67
=59	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Manchester	-1	78
=59	Glyndwr 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-1	66
=59	Aberystwyth 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-1	62
=59	Bournemouth 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-1	66
=59	Birmingham City 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-1	64
=65	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Worcester	-2	63
=65	Northumbria 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-2	66
=65	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Cumbria	-2	64
=65	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Sheffield	-2	75
=65	London South Bank 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-2	67
=65	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Brighton	-2	66
=65	Brunel 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ London	-2	63
=65	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Bolton	-2	60
=65	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Chester	-2	63
=65	Kingston 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-2	60
=65	Sheffield Hallam 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-2	64
=65	Oxford Brookes 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-2	68
=77	Edinburgh Napier 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-3	68
=77	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Bedfordshire	-3	58
=77	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Central Lancashire	-3	62
=77	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of West London	-3	60
=77	Anglia Ruskin 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-3	64
=77	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Liverpool	-3	75
=77	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Leicester	-3	71
=77	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of St Mark & St John	-3	60
=77	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Northampton	-3	70
=77	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of East Anglia	-3	59
=77	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Chichester	-3	56
=88	Queen Mary 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of London	-4	72
=88	Southampton Solent 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-4	54
=88	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Greenwich	-4	58
=88	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Derby	-4	59
=88	Leeds Beckett 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-4	58
=88	Edge Hill 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-4	63
=88	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Wolverhampton	-4	54
=95	Liverpool John Moores 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-5	62
=95	Royal Holloway, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of London	-5	62
=95	Glasgow Caledonian 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-5	70
=95	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Strathclyde	-5	72
=99	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of South Wales	-6	58
=99	Staffordshire 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-6	57
=99	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Westminster	-6	55
=99	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of St Andrews	-6	70
=99	Buckinghamshire New 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-6	57
=99	Canterbury Christ Church 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-6	57
=105	Bath Spa 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-7	55
=105	Goldsmiths, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of London	-7	55
=105	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Gloucestershire	-7	55
=105	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of the West of Scotland	-7	63
=105	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Salford	-7	59
110	Cardiff Metropolitan 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-8	57
=111	Plymouth 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-9	59
=111	Liverpool Hope 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-9	53
=111	Teesside 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-9	59
=111	Ulster 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-9	62
=111	Newman 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-9	52
116	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ Campus Suffolk	-10	55
117	London Metropolitan 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-11	47
118	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Wales Trinity Saint David	-12	50
119	51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of East London	-13	45
120	Queen Margaret 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ	-16	56