UK graduates less competitive

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 on Tuesday.

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.

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.

Said Wendy Piatt, head of the Russell Group of leading universities, 'Without more investment in higher education ... the UK risks jeopardising the competitive advantage which has made its universities the envy of the world'.