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Britain is risking its long-term economic growth by failing to invest in higher education, a major international report warned today.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that the UK had been overtaken by Eastern European countries in the proportion of young people graduating.
The study found just 38.7 per cent of young people in the UK were graduating from university, fewer than in Poland, Portugal and Slovakia.
The UK spends just a fraction of what rival economies invest in universities, the OECD said.
The report comes amid fears a generation of young people will be left without jobs or degrees in the recession.
This year an extra 55,000 students applied to university but ministers only paid for 13,000 more places. More than 100,000 candidates are set to miss out.
OECD secretary-general Angel Gurría said nations that invested in sending more students to university would recover from the recession more quickly.
In 2000, Britain was ranked third among OECD countries for producing graduates, with 37 per cent of young people gaining degrees.
But in seven years the UK score barely rose. Only 38.7 per cent of those in the UK aged 21-22 were gaining degrees by 2007.
In contrast, Poland's graduation rate rose from 34 per cent to 49 per cent in the same time. Iceland's rate almost doubled from 33 per cent to 63 per cent.
The UK now ranks 14th among the 26 OECD countries.
Yet even this score is significantly inflated by the thousands of overseas students attracted to Britain. When they are excluded, the UK's 2007 graduation rate falls to 33.6 per cent.
The OECD also said UK universities received less funding as a share of national income than the average among comparable nations.
Britain spends 1.3 per cent of GDP on higher education, compared with 1.6 per cent in Sweden and 2.9 per cent in America.
Higher education minister David Lammy said: “There are more students than ever before at UK universities.”
Reader views (4)
At the age of 25 you are approximately 1/3 of the way through the average active lifespan. You really must have an idea where you're going long before that and be heading in that direction. Sorry, Careers Adviser, Essex
- although a change of direction is perfectly reasonable (I did a major change at 27 for instance), you can't simply mark time until something comes along that feels good. You need to pay for the present as well as prepare for the future. 'Nothing qualifications' do neither.
No one says there are not worthwhile qualifications to be had. What IS being said, both popularly and in the workplace, is that British qualifications are not cutting the mustard these days. That is a political issue because politics have taken control of early education and have extended their reach into higher ed.
THAT is the reality.
- Rogan, Irving, 08/09/2009 18:57
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Francis, if only it were that simple! The realities are:
-Most students don't know what future career they want to follow when they choose their university subject (I didn't till I was 25, then I did a postgrad course to train in what I had become interested in)
-The predictions for 'skill-shortage occupations' vary according to which research report one reads
-would you count the famous PPE degrees at Oxbridge, for example, as those 'with no relevance to a student's future'? Tell that to generations of upper class families/Cabinet ministers!
- Careers Adviser, Essex, 08/09/2009 15:31
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Hmmm, 38.7% seems quite high to me, would you really want to dumb it down such that 100% of the population had a degree?
- Bob, Cheam, 08/09/2009 12:18
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In France the universities are often referred to as the waiting room for the unemployment office. Too many students are going to university, in the UK and France, just to get a degree that will have little or no relevance in their future career. Surely we should be encouraging would be students to opt for solutions better adapted to their potential and their future career as opposed to trying to fill up universities for the sake of European statistics?
- Francis, Rouen, France, 08/09/2009 11:47
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