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The removal of the binary line seems to have benefited graduates of the new universities, as the latest Government figures show employment prospects improving more quickly for them than for graduates from the old universities. But these figures hide the fact that new university graduates still trail behind their old university counterparts in terms of overall employment rates and postgraduate training.

The 1993 first destination survey, published by the Higher Education Careers Service, reveals that 45.5 per cent of new university students were in permanent jobs six months after graduation, a rise of 3.1 per cent on the previous year. By contrast, just 41.3 per cent of old university graduates had found employment, a rise of 1.3 per cent.

But the unemployment rates differed sharply, with 14.6 per cent of new university graduates and 9.5 per cent of old university graduates unable to find a job. Old university graduates are more likely to have opted for further education and training, 29.6 per cent taking this route compared to 16.5 per cent for graduates of new universities.

Old university graduates are also getting better jobs than new university graduates who were more than twice as likely to be in short-term employment.

Margaret Wallis, chair of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services, said that the latest figures were "swings and roundabouts" as far as graduates of the new universities are concerned. But she said the new universities had responded imaginatively to the decline of the milkround, which had hit them "extremely badly".