Not all universities are created equal – even those studying at Ivy League schools aren’t guaranteed a six-figure salary anymore. But there is one university in England that may up your chances of success after graduating.
New research has just ranked The University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world, for being the leading billionaire-producing university in Britain.
The study was conducted by educational experts at Edumentors, who analyzed Forbes’ list of billionaires worldwide, looking at those who studied in the U.K. for their bachelor’s, masters’, or PhD degrees.
Oxford University has seen 10 billionaires in its classrooms and halls – who have a combined wealth of $47.1 billion – including Alex Beard and Sir Michael Jonathan Moritz.
Beard, with a net worth of around $1.8 billion, is one of Britain’s youngest billionaires. He graduated from the 922-year-old university in 1989. From there, Beard joined the oil and gas giant BP before climbing the ranks at Glencore, where he served as CEO. In 2019, Beard stepped down to launch his own investment fund, Adaptogen Capital.
Meanwhile, with a net worth of $6.8 billion Oxford University alumni Moritz made his fortune investing in companies like Google, LinkedIn and PayPal.
Emma Watson and Hugh Grant are also among the university’s most famous faces – however, according to estimates, they are not billionaires.
Plus, although Oxford University has produced the most billionaires, those wanting to out earn their peers should look to its competitor, Cambridge University, which ranked first in terms of wealth.
“Even though Oxford University has more billionaires among its alumni, Cambridge University, with two fewer magnates, comes out ahead and ranks first in terms of wealth, totaling an outstanding $92.6 billion, $45.5 billion more than its rival,” pointed out Tornike Asatiani, CEO of Edumentors.
To put that into perspective, Cambridge University’s richest alumni have amassed a comparable level of wealth to those from Stanford – the second-highest billionaire-producing university in the U.S. – despite having 12 fewer billionaires.
Other notable American universities from Forbes’ similar list of top colleges for billionaires, published in June 2024, include Harvard and Pennsylvania, which have produced 28 and 36 billionaires, respectively. (Fortune, but headline rejigged)
