Graduates from Oxford Brookes University are more likely to get a top job than their counterparts at its more illustrious neighbour, Oxford University, a survey has revealed.

The former polytechnic came eighth in The Times's Good University Guide table, one place ahead of Oxford University by just 0.1 per cent.

The list, compiled by the Institute for Employment Research at Warwick University, showed 83.7 per cent of Brookes graduates got jobs that require or expect degree qualifications within six months, compared with 83.6 per cent of Oxford graduates.

This category includes traditional professions such as doctors, lawyers, engineers and teachers, as well as high-level sales, skilled clerical and low-level managerial and technical jobs, and postgraduate study.

Brookes's Chancellor, the Channel 4 newsreader Jon Snow, said the table showed it was catching up on its "rival down the hill".

He said: "We continue to enjoy a constructive, if competitive, relationship with Oxford University. Even so, it is gratifying to find that we have so closely overhauled them in graduate employability.

"We are no longer just the best of new universities, we are well and truly making our mark up against some of the old universities too."

Tony Butler, director of Oxford University's careers service, said employers were keen to recruit Oxford graduates and the university's lowly position showed many graduates were not looking for work immediately after graduating.

He said: "Many take time out and travel round the world. There's evidence that the pressures of studying, which have increased by the introduction of fees, mean that many are putting off looking for a job until after their exams."

However, Oxford University was ranked the top university overall, with Brookes in 48th place. But it was the top new university for the eighth year in a row.