Changes to economy benefit graduate employment

The restructuring of the British economy over the last 15 years has benefited graduate employment, according to the Chief Researcher for the Higher Education Career Services Unit.

Dr Charlie Ball noted that when new universities were created in 1992, graduate unemployment stood at over 10%. Despite the fact that the number of undergraduates has risen by between 40 and 50% since then, the jobless rate has almost halved.

'We have added a lot of jobs in this country and they have almost all been at graduate level … so far the economy has been able to accommodate the increased number of graduates,' he remarked.

Dr Ball also observed that the percentage of the population going into higher education has remained static at around 40% for some time now, commenting: 'We seem to have hit a ceiling in the proportion of young people who want to go to university.'

This, he stated, is significantly less than other western nations. According to figures published by the Organisation For Economic Cooperation and Development, three-quarters of young people in Australia, New Zealand and the Scandinavian countries enter university.