The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers is a celebration of the best organisations recruiting graduates in Britain this year. The sixth edition is based on research conducted with nearly 16,000 students who graduated from British universities this summer.

The “Class of 2004” were asked to name the employer that they thought offered the best opportunities for graduates, based on the training and development on offer, the quality of the employer’s recruitment promotions, and its overall reputation. The Top 100 is a dynamic league table of Britain’s most exciting and well- respected graduate employers.

It is headed by the accounting and professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has been rated as the top graduate recruiter for the first time. It has overtaken last year’s leading employer, the Civil Service, and Accenture, another former No 1. The firm has also just been confirmed as Britain’s largest graduate employer, with an estimated 1,000 vacancies for new graduates in 2005.

KPMG, another of the Big Four accountancy firms, moves up to fourth place, its highest position to date. And the NHS has made the top five, an impressive rise considering that it was ranked 27th in 2002.

The BBC is in sixth position, while the Army and HSBC have slipped three places this year. Procter & Gamble, the consumer goods company, and Deloitte, the accounting firm, are unchanged from their 2003 rankings.

Elsewhere in the top 20 there have been a number of big changes. The Royal Bank of Scotland has jumped 23 places to fifteenth. But the biggest climber is the investment bank J P Morgan, which has leapt nearly 30 places to sixteenth. It is one of five banks to have done much better this year, along with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup.

A number of technical or engineering firms have also recorded good progress. Microsoft and Rolls-Royce have both achieved their highest rankings, just outside the top 20.

The bottom half

Although the top half of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers for 2004 is dominated by accountancy firms, investment banks and fast-moving consumer goods companies, the full league table includes a much wider variety of organisations.

More public sector organisations were named as “employers of choice” this year than ever before. These include the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, DSTL — the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory — and MI5.

This new list of leading employers was compiled by asking more than 15,000 final year university students from the “Class of 2004” which organisation they felt offered the best prospects for graduates.

There are nine new entries — the highest being law firm Baker & McKenzie in 61st place. The Fast Track Teaching scheme, new in at number 69, is the second teaching initiative represented. The other, Teach First, which recruits graduates for teaching positions before they begin a career elsewhere, rises to 41st.

The strategy consultancy the Boston Consulting Group joins the list in 85th place, a little ahead of the investment banks Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital, and the engineering company Atkins. Cancer Research UK is a high new entry in 79th place, one of only two charities to feature as top employers. Siemens and the European motor manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citröen are the other two companies joining the list for the first time.

Five organisations fell dramatically. Ford slumped farthest, from 21st to 75th, after cancelling its graduate recruitment programme in 2003 and ExxonMobil is 80th, a marked contrast to Shell, which at 12 is at its best ranking to date.

Masterfoods, the chocolate-to-pet food group formerly known as Mars, has had five years in or around the top ten, but is only 45th while its close rival Nestlé fell 30 places.

However, all the organisations featured in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers are judged to offer excellent career opportunities for life after university. These are the employers most sought after by graduates in 2004.

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  Read the list in full on page 2

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