AT FIRST GLANCE, there are few surprises in this year’s Times rankings of British universities. Oxford tightens its grip at the top, extending its lead from three to 14 points and pushing Cambridge into second place for the second year running. The difference between the two blues, at just over 1 per cent, is tiny in a table scored out of 1,000, but there is evidence of a widening gap between Oxbridge and the rest of Britain’s “Ivy League”. Oxford and Cambridge are becoming the Manchester United and Arsenal of the intellectual premier league.

But, for the first time, the table includes information that will prove vital once universities are allowed to increase tuition fees in 2006 and many students face the maximum of £3,000 a year. The prospect of emerging from their studies with debts of up to £21,000 will force many to focus on the big value-for-money question: just how good will their job prospects be at the end of the course? For the first time, the column on graduate destinations distinguishes those who leave university for “graduate-type” jobs from those who don’t — and taking this rating in isolation an altogether different top ten emerges. Based on work by academics at the Institute for Employment Research at Warwick University, the figures show the percentage of graduates who go into jobs that require or expect degree qualifications, based on the average level of qualifications held by employees in those occupations.

Rating universities this way throws up some surprises. Cambridge, at 90.5 per cent, leaves Oxford trailing with 83.6. In fact, eight universities outperform Oxford by this yardstick — three from the top ten and one, Robert Gordon, from as low as 61st position in the overall table.

The “graduate” category includes traditional professions such as doctors, lawyers, engineers and teachers, as well as high-level managerial and technical occupations. Jobs that have come to be seen as graduate occupations, such as high-level sales, skilled clerical and lower-level company management, are also included, as are the numbers who go on to postgraduate study.

The calculations, which make use of data about graduate destinations collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, are controversial. Some universities question whether the information is robust enough to make judgments about graduates’ success in finding suitable jobs. But the Warwick researchers concluded that the jobs in which graduates found themselves six months after leaving university provided a strong indicator of employment prospects over the subsequent three years.

Most universities hover between 70 and 80 per cent. At the bottom, fewer than 60 per cent of those leaving Paisley and Derby were in graduate-type jobs. London Metropolitan and East London University, both of which have high drop-out rates, also scored poorly, as did Lancaster, nearly 80 places above them overall.

Students, who will increasingly make hard-nosed financial calculations about their studies, will find the information invaluable in weighing up the merits of different courses and universities. Universities with the best track records will feel justified in raising fees.

This year’s rankings emerge at a time of intense public debate about universities since the Government’s White Paper on higher education reform and controversy over “social engineering” in admissions to elite institutions.

One thing is clear. The A-level grades required of students seeking places at the best universities continue to edge up as competition intensifies. Students winning places at this year’s top ten all achieved the equivalent of at least an A and two B grades in their examinations.

Outside Oxford, Cambridge and London, Bath retains its title as Britain’s top provincial university, and York and Warwick have consolidated their reputations among the very best.

Bristol, at the centre of the furore over admissions, slips two places to ninth, partly because of a dip in the number of top degrees awarded. Nottingham, among the most popular student choices, drops out of the top 10 to 13th.

Loughborough, the steadily rising “sleeper” of the academic league, has gone from 21st two years ago to 12th, ranking the university above half of the Russell Group elite. St Andrews retains its place as Scotland’s top university after overtaking Edinburgh for the first time last year. Cardiff remains top in Wales.

The new universities dominate the lower half of the table. Many of the former polytechnics see their mission primarily as widening access to people from non-traditional backgrounds, and the rankings place them at a disadvantage in terms of entry qualifications and research.

But many rank as highly as more esteemed rivals in the success of their graduates in the job market. The era of differential fees looming on the horizon gives them a chance to win customers by targeting students more eager for the practical benefits of a degree education than an “ivory towers” experience.

• All the Good University Guide tables and articles featured in The Times this week will be available on The Times website (www.timesonline.co.uk/uniguide), with extended versions of the 62 subject tables. The guide, including profiles of all 100 universities, will be published in paperback later this month.

  Some well-known names do not appear in the table. The Open University and Birkbeck College, London, do not cater for full-time undergraduates, while Cranfield University and the London Business School serve mainly postgraduates. Buckingham University, as a private institution, is not assessed for teaching and research.

  The tables are compiled by Nicola Bright, of Bright Statistics, for Mayfield University Consultants (b.kingston@mayfield-uc.org.uk). The raw material will be analysed in The Times Higher Education Supplement tomorrow.

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