The gap in wages between graduates and non-graduates has been maintained over the past 30 years, but Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), argues that the level of graduate salaries has been falling and the variation in pay is huge.
In an article in The Times, Johnson points out that graduates and non-graduates have both seen big falls in their average wages since the mid-2000s, so that the median wage of 25-29 year old graduates is more than 10% lower now than it was 15 years ago. This presents big challenges for the system of university fees and loans. There is also huge variation in what graduates earn depending on what they studied and where.