Many new graduates are still going into traditional gender roles, with fewer women taking jobs such as IT contractors and freelancers, the Graduate Recruitment Bureau (GRB) has said.

However, the Guardian UK 300 survey found some surprises, as more women are going into the police, prison and probation services, with which do not even feature in the men's most preferred employers.

Dan Hawes, co-founder of the GRB, said the economy has forced everybody to reconsider their career paths, whether male or female, with financial services in particular taking a turn for the worse.

"The economy is starting to pick up but most graduates are still going for the traditional graduate roles … IT has historically had trouble getting females into the industry because of the perception," he commented.

Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency found this month that the total number of students in higher education grew by seven per cent over the last five years.