According to a report published by employer branding specialists Universum today, Google was only added to the list this year because it achieved such a high write-in rate in 2006 – the year it started recruiting graduates in Europe.

The survey of 16,500 students in “the top 100 universities in Europe” saw quite a shake-up in the firms rated by engineering and IT students, with IBM dropping from first to fourth place and Siemens from second to seventh.

Business students were a little more predictable. As in 2006, they opted for McKinsey & Company, The Boston Consulting Group and L’Oreal in first, second and third places.

Google also did well in this category, though; it leapt straight in to fourth place.

Rankings for the UK alone are somewhat different, with public sector organisations scooping the honours among science and engineering students. The BBC, Environment Agency, Ministry of Defence and NHS came in first, second, third and fourth respectively.

Among business students the top four were PricewaterhouseCoopers, Goldman Sachs, the BBC and L’Oreal.

Here are the top ten ideal employers selected by European engineering and IT students (with last year’s rank in brackets).

1. Google (new entry)
2. Porsche (4)
3. Ferrari (6)
4. IBM (1)
5. EADS (9)
6. BMW (3)
7. Siemens (2)
8. Audi (11)
9. Sony (5)
10. Nokia (10)

And here are the top ten ideal employers selected by European business students (again, with last year’s rank in brackets).

1. McKinsey & Company (1)
2. The Boston Consulting Group (2)
3. L’Oreal (3)
4. Google (new entry)
5. Goldman Sachs (12)
6. J P Morgan (8)
7. PricewaterhouseCoopers (9)
8. Porsche (6)
9. Procter & Gamble (4)
10. BMW (5)