UK behind in graduate race

BRITAIN is falling behind other industrialised nations in the race to produce the highly skilled graduates needed to remain competitive in the world economy, an international survey of education found yesterday.

In 2000 some 37 per cent of young Britons graduated, ranking Britain third amongst the members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), beaten only by Finland and New Zealand.

But by 2008 Britain had fallen to 14th, overtaken by countries with rising graduation rates such as Poland, the Netherlands, Japan, Ireland and Norway, the OECD reported in its annual review of education statistics.

The findings come as coalition ministers look for ways to cut state spending on higher education with the Treasury demanding 25 per cent budget cuts across government to curb a record budget deficit.

Tomorrow's university students face steep rises in the eventual cost of their education, either in the form of higher tuition fees or in larger taxes after graduation, ministers have indicated.

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has scrapped the previous Labour administration's target of 50 per cent participation in higher education.

It has also capped funding for university places at a time of record applications for degree courses.

But the OECD said investing in higher education made financial sense for countries, even if they were running a deficit.

"Countries with high graduation rates ... are also those most likely to develop or maintain a highly skilled labour force," it said in the report Economics at a Glance 2010.

In addition graduates on average paid back threefold in taxes and other benefits the public cost of their education.

This return provided "a strong incentive for governments to expand higher education," the OECD said. A British graduate was typically worth a net US$95,000 to the public coffers over a lifetime after taking into account tax payments and their lower demand for social benefits, the OECD calculated.

Reuters