UK's graduate rates falling behind - graduate jobs

The UK is falling behind other developing nations who are producing increasing numbers of university graduates, according to a major report.

Considerable expansions of education systems in certain countries have seen them surpass the UK in the international rankings, an Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said.

The UK was ranked third in the university graduation rate table in 2000, but was in 11th position by 2007, having been passed by Sweden, Iceland and Portugal among other nations. The OECD's annual "Education at a Glance" report, which analyses 30 countries around the world for their educational progress, said that countries need to plan for more people wanting to stay in education during a recession.

The Government restricted the number of extra student places available this year to 13,000, despite a record 613,000 applying to start a degree course this autumn, while another 135,800 still qualify for the clearing process, which matches applicants to vacant places.

OECD head of analysis Andreas Schleicher, who believes that the UK has "levelled off" in many areas of education, said: "The UK was at the front in 2000, now it is doing reasonably well, but many countries have passed that point."