Women benefit most from going to university

A study from the DfE and the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that female graduates earn 28% more than non-graduate women, whilst male graduates earn 8% more than non-graduate men. The report, based on tax records of people who went to school in England and then to university in the UK, shows a woman with a degree earns £6,700 more per year, on average than a non-graduate woman. But a male graduate earns £2,700, on average, more than a man without a degree. 

The figures reflect the fact that women who do not go to university are more likely have children earlier than graduates and on average are more likely to be working part-time in their twenties. Women in their twenties without degrees are twice as likely to be working part-time compared with their graduate peers. Thus, the big gains for women graduates is partially down to comparisons between full-time graduate earnings and those non-graduates working part-time. For men, the financial gains of a degree are much less certain, and 33% of male graduates went to a university in which there was a "negligible or negative impact" on earnings compared with those without a degree. The figures have been adjusted to take into account the background of students and previous academic achievement, making it a like-for-like comparison.  [source: CES newsletter]