The sixth Global University Employability Rankings has rated Cambridge’s graduates as the most sought after in the UK.

The annual report, published by Times Higher Education, places Cambridge fourth in the global ranking of 150 universities for producing graduates with crucial workplace skills.

Produced by consultancy firm Emerging, the survey gathered data from 2,500 graduate employers in 20 countries, with each company being asked to detail what they look for when recruiting graduates, and which universities they believe produce the most employable graduates.

The top three places on the list were all taken by American institutions, with the California Institute of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University leading the pack, and 34 other American universities making the top 150.

British universities also had a strong showing in this year’s ranking, with the University of Oxford also making the top ten in seventh place, and six more institutions, including Imperial College London, Manchester, and Edinburgh, appearing in the top 50. Two further institutions, Bristol and Birmingham, were ranked in the second half of the list, at 84 and 90 respectively.

Elsewhere in the world, despite a poor showing in this year’s Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Japan’s universities performed well, with the University of Tokyo and the Tokyo Institute of Technology appearing at 10 and 20, making Japan the only country outside of Europe and North America to have two institutions in the top 20.

The survey also revealed distinctions in what employers look for in their graduate recruits. In the UK and India, employers valued strong communication skills as most important, whereas Chinese and German recruited preferred adaptability.

British recruiters, the research suggests, also value motivation and teamwork higher than employers abroad, but place below average weight on flexibility and multicultural sensitivity.

Times Higher Education World University Rankings editor, Phil Baty, said in a statement: “In a year of huge political upheaval, where young students have witnessed Brexit and the unexpected election of Donald Trump as US President, many will seek the relative safety of a university with a strong track record of producing graduates who are valued by large, international graduate employers.”