Falmouth University has the second-highest number of graduates who go on to start businesses or become CEOs, according to a study.

It ranked higher than Oxford and Cambridge and just behind the University of the Arts London.

The study commissioned by Hitachi Capital Invoice Finance found that 19.77 per cent of Falmouth graduates went on to start their own businesses or become CEOs.

Falmouth University offers several business-related courses including a Business and Digital Marketing BSc and a Business Finance Innovation MA.

Its Launchpad incubator programme also offers budding entrepreneurs a £16,000 grant to start up their own company and pairs them with suitable team members.

In order to determine which institutions were the best for business, the study involved an analysis of 9,500,000 UK graduates.

Falmouth's high ranking was in contrast to its current university league table position of 77 (according to The Complete University Guide).

More than one in ten (10.55 per cent) of Falmouth University graduates have also gone on to become freelancers.

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) came third behind Falmouth and University of the Arts London with one in six (16.10 per cent) of graduates going on to become business leaders.

The University of Oxford came in at fourth place on the list with more than one in seven (15.23 per cent) with the University of Cambridge following just behind with one in 14.85 per cent of graduates starting their own business.

Northern universities ranked worse than southern ones overall, but the University of Bradford took the top spot over others in the region, with 12.14 per cent of students going on to become business leaders.