Target/Non-Target Universities - The Ultimate Guide

by Canary Wharfian on September 12th 2025

Attending a target versus a non-target university makes a huge difference when it comes to landing your first role. These categories are based on the relative attractiveness of universities reputation and more concretely, recruitment activity and networking opportunities available on campus.

Targets universities are competitive to get into, but are a really safe bet when it comes to breaking into the industry. If you achieve the minimum 2:1 degree classification required for graduate or internship programmes, the path is rather straight-forward. There are many events organised by the finance society where one can learn about the industry. For instance, banks will also visit the campus at the beginning of the recruitment season (September to October) and talk to students, as well as alumni will visit and do a presentation and answer questions.

Semi-target students have it roughly one order of magnitude more difficult. At this level, events and opportunities to network are a bit more limited, however the culture towards getting on a spring week or a summer internship is similarly intense. There is a big difference between in terms of competitiveness of the top semi-targets (like Bristol) vs the bottom semi-targets (like Manchester).

Important to note: while most of the targets are internationally recognised and across continents (the brand value is transferable), due to visa sponsorship issues generally it is very difficult to land any kind of entry-level opportunity in terms of UK vs continental Europe vs rest of the world. For instance, after Brexit, UK nationals can't work in the EU and vice versa without visa sponsorship. This means employers will simply hire local talent, as no extra resources need to be spent trying to hire the same level of talent, but from a foreign geography. Once you have spent a few years working at a firm, above the Analyst level, transferring between different offices across the world is much more realistic.

The EMEA region is a lot more fragmented than the North American region simply due to history and geography. Language skills are crucial. It means that employers prefer candidates with strong English plus local language skills for regional hubs (including cultural knowledge/experience), like the France market being covered by the Paris office, and the German market covered by Frankfurt.

United Kingdom