Queen Mary University of London graduates off to a flying start

In November 2024, the UK Government announced their new industrial strategy – a 10-year plan to invest in eight priority sectors to drive economic growth.  

A new report from Universities UK (UUK) shows that key to delivering this strategy and to creating long-term growth in the UK is a workforce that has come from Higher Education (HE). They state that: “All eight of these sectors need high-level skills that graduates have. Currently, they all have a high proportion of graduates in the workforce, and if they are to grow, they’ll need even more graduates.”. In fact, the Government predicts that 11 million extra graduates will be needed in the UK workforce by 2035. 

At Queen Mary University of London, we pride ourselves on producing graduates who are prepared for the workforce once they leave us. And, more so than many of our peers, we open the doors of opportunity to students from all backgrounds with the potential to succeed, and support them in reaching their full potential, meaning we are ensuring a future workforce that reflects the diversity of the UK.  

While at Queen Mary, our national and international students receive a world-class, research-led education at a Russell Group university, ranked 92nd in the world and 9th in the UK, and which consistently receives accolades for its work in innovation and entrepreneurship. Our students receive an education rated ‘Silver’ in the 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework and ‘Outstanding’ following a 2024 Ofsted visit and this teaching is delivered by academics whose excellence is recognised globally, in a research environment ranked 24th in the world.  

Beyond education and research, our students are taught the importance of equality, diversity inclusion and social mobility, which have all been central to Queen Mary’s ethos throughout its 240-year history. Our commitment to these values has been recognised in many ways, including the University being ranked number one for social mobility in 2021 and our President and Principal being presented with an award for outstanding contribution to social mobility in 2024.  

Opening new doors by working with partners  

Queen Mary’s founding institutions aimed to provide hope and opportunity for the people of East London: something we still do today. This ambition is one of the reasons we began offering degree apprenticeships at Queen Mary – the first Russell Group university to do so.  

Among our most popular degree apprenticeship programmes is Flying Start. The four-year programme is led by Ishani Chandrasekara, Professor of Accounting Education at Queen Mary, who in 2024 was shortlisted for both a Times Higher Education and QS ReImagine Award for her development and delivery of Flying Start. 

Based in our School of Business and Management and developed in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers, the programme offers an exceptional blend of academic excellence, professional accreditation, and hands on accountancy experience, which gives students a flying start towards becoming a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Among the programme’s first cohort – who are now entering their final year – 87% of students identify as Black, Asian or an ethnic minority; 76% were eligible for free school meals; and 67% are the first in their family to attend university. The programme, which transforms outcomes for these accounting students, has a 100% continuation rate, and graduates go on to secure incredible roles across the world, transforming their life prospects.  

We also work with Newham College and a range of employers to map education and training to skill needs, through the London City Institute of Technology. Supported with funding from the Department of Education and the Greater London Authority, the Institute specialises in delivering higher technical education and apprenticeships with a focus subjects such as engineering and construction role. In doing so, it provides students with the technical skills that employers require, supporting our graduates to secure high-quality jobs upon graduation. 

Embracing the future to prepare for it   

At Queen Mary we are committed to preparing our students for the future, including ensuring the education we provide equips them with the skills and knowledge they need to work in jobs today and tomorrow. This includes being familiar and comfortable with emerging technologies – both how they’re used in education and in various sectors.  

One of the most significant examples of this is ensuring our students are ahead of the curve when it comes to AI and education. Ensuring this happens was a big driver behind creating our new Centre for Excellence in Education in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Based in the Queen Mary Academy, the Centre seeks to create a transformative learning environment where AI literacy is integrated into all the University’s teaching and learning, as a key graduate attribute. And it will provide our staff with the resources and professional development they need to deliver impactful teaching, which has AI and digital literacy at its core.  

The Centre was launched at the 2024 Global MOOC & Online Education Conference which Queen Mary co-hosted, the first university to host this conference outside of China. At the conference, global leaders in education, including the Chinese Vice-Minister for Education and Jacqui Smith, the UK’s Minister for Education, came together to discuss the role technology, particularly AI, plays in higher education, now and in the future.  

Beyond the new Centre, last year we also launched a new AI module for students which has already started roll out. The module provides an overview of the different types of AI, the methodologies behind them and the problems they can solve.  

We also teach our students to think about the impact of these new technologies. Our academics encourage students to ask questions like ‘can AI co-exist with the world’s sustainability goals?’  We work with partners on events such as the world’s first Children’s AI summit to make sure students consider the impact AI will have on not only today’s children, but tomorrow’s as well. And our AI module and library services team offer an introduction to the ethical and philosophical aspects and use of AI at university and beyond.  

By embracing AI, we are ensuring our students are equipped with leading AI skills and knowledge when comes to AI technology, while remaining mindful of its limitations and potential risks. These attributes are sought after by employers and will be vital to achieving the Government’s Industrial Strategy, making our graduates unique compared to their peers in competitive job markets. 

A unique university produces unique graduates  

Queen Mary is unique among Russell Group universities. With an East London heritage dating back 240 years, our values and beliefs are grounded in the past, but our eye is always on the future. And in lots of ways, we are ahead of the curve when it comes to seamlessly blending our past with the future.  

This means our graduates are also unique and ahead of their peers. Whether they’re students from home or abroad, anyone who studies with us will be exposed to high-quality, award-winning education from academics who literally wrote the books on many, many subjects. They will have their thinking challenged by research leaders renowned on a global scale. They will have the opportunity to meet their potential and excel with us, no matter who they are or where they’ve come from.  

We also support students in their next step through our careers and enterprise team who provide individualised career management support, and through Queen Mary Innovation, who support individuals interested in entrepreneurship, And, because of all this, and the graduate attributes they will leave Queen Mary with, they will be uniquely placed to meet the needs of employers for years to come and to drive innovation in the workplace.  

It’s no wonder then that our graduates are targets for recruitment. In fact, since 2020, we have consistently been in the top 20 universities targeted by leading employers. This also means Queen Mary graduates earning potential is high. In fact, a recent ranking from the Daily Mail placed Queen Mary 12th in the UK for graduate earnings, and for this measure the Telegraph ranks two of our subjects top in the country. In addition, the most recent LEO data shows that Queen Mary has had the fastest rising graduate salary among Russell Group Universities in the last five years.  

A flying start towards a bright future 

Whether it’s through our widening participation programmes or our degree apprenticeships; our ever-evolving education offer that has technology like AI at its heart; our commitment to equality, diversity, inclusion and social mobility; or the world leading academics who teach them, Queen Mary produces graduates like no other, who are poised to lead the workforce of the future.  

They are set apart from their peers because of the experiences they have at our University, the ideas and lessons they are exposed to and the various types of support they receive during their course from our world-leading, cutting-edge academics and highly committed professional services staff.  

This is something we are extremely proud of and are committed to continuing to the benefit of our students and society more broadly, including by developing tomorrow’s workforce. It is what makes Queen Mary, and our students, so special.