Open University produce 3rd most staff for global tech firms
@OpenUniversity produces the third-most graduates for the world’s largest tech companies, according to new research from @SHLglobal “Aspirational Academics“.
We researched the educational backgrounds of over 800,000 graduates to find out which universities lead the way in producing talent for the world’s largest tech companies, banks and newspapers.
Using LinkedIn, we calculated the number of graduates from each institution currently working at 17 of the world’s largest tech companies, including Apple, Facebook and Google.
Almost 2,500 employees had Open University degrees, only Oxford and Cambridge had more.
Over 3,000 Cambridge graduates went on to work for tech giants, and were the most popular choice of graduate for Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft.
Tech Companies
Open University graduates most commonly went on to work for Microsoft of the five biggest tech companies. 212 OU graduates work there.
| Rank | University | # of Graduates |
| 1 | University of Cambridge | 3027 |
| 2 | University of Oxford | 2502 |
| 3 | Open University | 2475 |
| 4 | London School of Economics | 2245 |
| 5 | University of Manchester | 2168 |
| 6 | London Business School | 2005 |
| 7 | University College London | 1816 |
| 8 | Imperial College London | 1806 |
| 9 | University of Edinburgh | 1641 |
| 10 | University of Leeds | 1539 |
Our seedlist of tech companies with UK staff included:
- Apple
- Microsoft
- Alphabet
- Dell Technologies
- IBM
- Intel
- HP
- Nvidia
- Oracle
- Adobe
- Amazon
- Samsung
- Nintendo
- Sony
Tech Giants
Cambridge graduates were the most popular choice for staff at Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft.
Amazon
| University | # of Employees | |
| 1 | University of Cambridge | 466 |
| 2 | London School of Economics | 455 |
| 3 | University of Oxford | 368 |
| 4 | University of Edinburgh | 346 |
| 5 | University of Manchester | 335 |
Apple
| University | # of Employees | |
| 1 | University of Cambridge | 266 |
| 2 | University of Oxford | 205 |
| 3 | University of York | 166 |
| 4 | University of Manchester | 164 |
| 5 | University of Westminster | 147 |
| University | # of Employees | |
| 1 | University of Oxford | 245 |
| 2 | London School of Economics | 243 |
| 3 | University of Cambridge | 225 |
| 4 | University College London | 156 |
| 5 | Imperial College London | 136 |
| University | # of Employees | |
| 1 | University of Cambridge | 699 |
| 2 | University of Oxford | 644 |
| 3 | London School of Economics | 592 |
| 4 | University College London | 381 |
| 5 | Imperial College London | 329 |
Microsoft
| University | # of Employees | |
| 1 | University of Cambridge | 348 |
| 2 | London Business School | 239 |
| 3 | University of Oxford | 216 |
| 4 | Open University | 212 |
| 5 | London School of Economics | 192 |
Methodology
- Our seed list for this study consists of 60 companies split across tech, finance and media. Our seed list of universities includes every university in the UK.
- Using LinkedIn, we then calculated the number of graduates from each institution for each company.
- For those companies with subsidiaries, we included the employees of those subsidiaries in our analysis.
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