The figures showed that in 2011 over 2,000 graduates from the Britain's 20 leading universities found jobs abroad.
According to the figures from HESA, around four in 10 graduates working abroad were based in Europe, but a fifth secured jobs in the Far East and 12% were in North America.
The disclosure comes just two weeks after a Home Office report on emigration from the UK and the factors and motivations behind it revealed that almost half of all Britains who emigrate each year are professionals and company-managed - threatening the country's supply of highly-skilled workers, HESA claimed.
It was also claimed that a "large and increasing" number of executives, scientists, academics and doctors have chosen to leave Britain over the last 20 years.
Verity O'Keefe, Employment Adviser for EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, said: "It is worrying that the UK is increasingly losing top graduate talent to competing countries. Having invested in students during their years of study, we need to be doing our utmost to keep hold of them.
"Employers offer lucrative employment deals and pay packages to secure the best talent. If this information is not being channelled to our young people at an early stage, then we need to be looking at more innovative ways of getting this message across.
"Four in five manufacturers are currently reporting recruitment problems. If we do not act to prevent these trends, this figure will undoubtedly rise."
The department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said: "While graduates, like others, do of course suffer in recessions, they fare better than non-graduates, and their prospects tend to pick up more quickly during the recovery. And demand for more highly skilled employees in our economy continues to increase.
"It is encouraging that UK graduates are in demand globally, reflecting recognition of world class excellence in our universities' teaching and research."
