‘Graduate premium’ is shrinking fast

It would have been helpful if the article had indicated the source of the paper. In terms of the paper itself all the stuff about risk is pretty extraneous. I do not see how it adds much to anything. It would have been much better if the sociology had been stripped out and the paper aimed at a specialist HE journal. There then could have been greater emphasis on the literature on graduate earnings and employability. Treating graduates as a single undifferentiated entity for example is not very helpful and no reference is made to the evidence on the very different levels of payback graduates from different disciplines can expect to make.

", but paradoxically more and more jobs now require higher education, according to research." What is the paradox? With greater access it is clear that entry standards, at the lower end, are much lower now than 20/30 years ago. So we should expect a lower average "graduate premium"; there are more of them and on average they are are of lower IQ. If employers describe a job as "graduate" level that is much like recruiting A-level school leavers 20/30 years ago. "Graduate level" does not imply the high standard of 20/30 years ago; the bottom end is MUCH lower than it used to be.