Universum Communications AB announces today the results of its annual Pan-European Student Survey 2009.

Google is the number one Ideal Employer for business students, followed by Apple (no. two) and McKinsey & Company (no. three). Google also maintains the top spot for students in IT, Natural Sciences and Humanities, while in the engineering sector the top three are BMW (no. one), Porsche (no. two) and Audi (no. three).

The rankings, now dubbed the UNIVERSUM Top 100, reflect the level of employer attractiveness of a company/organisation on the graduate recruitment market. On the one hand, this year’s results show that companies in the financial sector have all dropped slightly in the rankings, as can be expected due to the current economic climate. Some examples are J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Citi, and Merrill Lynch. On the other hand, the results show that the retail market for FMCG companies such as Coca cola, Unilever, Danone, Kraft Foods, to name a few, have managed to climb in the business rankings.

Alongside their choice of ideal employers, the survey reveals those industries European students are currently drawn to. Management consulting is top of their wish list, where 16 per cent of the students surveyed want to work, followed by academic research (15 per cent) and marketing/advertising (13 per cent). Even if most companies in the management consulting sector have fallen slightly, students are aware that working in this sector is a good career move. Compare this to the dismal financial services sector, where only 7 per cent want to go in the near future.

Another appealing choice for students is the government/public sector, coming at fourth place (11 per cent) in their list of preferred industries. This is signalled by the increased need for job security in this precarious economic environment (survey results indicate that 31 per cent of the students selected this as one of their top three career goals). The government/public sector will become a more attractive sector to work in should the economic downturn persist.

Yet the results also show that in spite of an industry’s economic decline, there are certain players that stand aside. Students are not necessarily categorical in their decision making. The automotive industry is a great example of this, where the industry as a whole faces challenges, but where strong and stable companies make it to the top three amongst engineering students.

This year’s results are based on a survey of 29,904 students across one hundred of the top academic institutions in Europe. The data was collected from November 2008 to March 2009. European students were asked questions about their career preferences and were asked to select their five ‘ideal’ employers from an initial student-nominated list of 111 international companies or organisations. The UNIVERSUM Top 100 reflects the frequency with which these employers were selected as being ideal.

This year’s top ten employers by main field of study are as follows:

Pan-European Student Survey 2009 -  Rankings