The positive economic effects of an increasing number of university graduates can trickle down to the less well-qualified, according to a major report on education by the OECD released on Tuesday.
University graduates in all countries earn more money and have better job opportunities than people without university education, the annual study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development says.
But job prospects for early school leavers are improved, not hindered, by the expansion of higher education, it concludes. "The report is quite clear in this respect - the expansion of education has had a major positive impact on individuals and economies, and there are still no signs of an 'inflation' of the labour market of university-level qualifications," OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria said. More than half of school leavers in OECD countries are now entering university-level education at some stage in their lives on average.
"This is remarkable. Some 40 years ago, it was little more than one in 10," Gurria said as he presented the 450-page "Education at a Glance" report in Berlin. But fears that more graduates would lead to more unemployment among less-qualified people had not been realised, according to the Paris-based economic think tank for wealthy countries.
The latest study, mainly based on data from 2005, also confirms a growing trend that female students are more likely to complete upper secondary education than male students, turning an historical pattern on its head. Female students trailed behind male students in just three of the organisation's 30 countries - South Korea, Switzerland and Turkey.
The OECD also showed "marked progress" in the numbers of students completing secondary education. In 22 OECD member states, plus partner economies Estonia, Israel, the Russian Federation and Slovenia, at least 60 percent of adults have completed upper secondary education. Some 26 percent have completed tertiary education.
Gurria underlined that educational provision was constantly evolving, meaning that countries such as Germany, where 80 percent of the adult population have completed upper secondary schooling, were being rapidly caught up by other OECD countries.
"Countries like Germany who were well-prepared to become industrial powers are experiencing difficulty in adapting to the evolution to a service-based economy," Gurria added. Across 24 OECD countries with comparable data, an average of 36 percent of students have completed a traditional university degree.