Investment banks scour the campuses of the top universities in Europe for their front office graduate programmes, but can the same be said for the buy-side? Well, yes, according to a new ranking which suggests asset management firms favour graduates from Oxford, Cambridge and London School of Economics over any other universities.
The ranking below from research firm eVestment shows which universities in Europe portfolio managers, analysts, strategists, economists and those in investor relations and marketing roles within asset management graduate from.
The results are sadly predictable – the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, LSE as well as Bristol and Edinburgh are not only were academically gifted students attend, they’re also traditionally where the more economically privileged members of society end up. There is, at least, some recognition of this fact within the industry and a group of asset managers launched Investment 2020, which aims to offer places to students outside of an elite band of universities.
eVestment’s research also factors in which have been the ‘feeder schools’ into the asset management industry in Europe since 1965. Guess what, Oxford, Cambridge and the LSE (as well as Edinburgh) have provided the bulk of recruits since the 1970s, and this shows no sign of changing.
The results are skewed by the fact that the majority of firms from which the rankings are drawn are based in the UK. One (slight) improvement from a diversity perspective is that the proportion of recruits who hail from the UK and U.S. has declined slightly over the years in favour of employees from other European nations. However, the proportion of employees from both the Middle East and Asia working in European asset management has remained relatively static.
By product strategy, Cambridge is the place to attend if you want to work in either UK and European equity and fixed income, global products and alternative investments. LSE dominates the rankings for North American equity and fixed income.
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