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•         By Alfred Lee 

MORE than a third of Britain's university graduates cannot find a job, with some settling for a job as a secretary, clerk, waiter, or even lap dancer.

Though they have degrees, hundreds are working as sales assistants in department stores and others are delivering bottles of milk to homes or working as London Underground ticket barrier guards.

Three women friends who failed to obtain any newspaper, magazine or television job despite scores of applications after gaining degrees in media communications, took up jobs as lap dancers in a London club, performing almost naked in front of male customers, according to The Sun newspaper.

They agreed not to tell other girl dancers that they were university graduates, for fear of being ridiculed, the newspaper reported.

Two young women graduates in human resource are earning under £5 (RM31.50) an hour working in McDonald's hamburger outlets while they ponder their future.

One of them, Katherine Young, 26, of Stratford, East London, told The Straits Times: "I have applied for over 40 human resource jobs but have had just six interviews. One position had 53 applicants.

"My friend from university is having the same problem. We are working at McDonald's, rather than staying home, while we decide what to do.

"We may study more to become teachers - at least we know there is a shortage of them."

Figures released recently by Britain's Higher Education Council show that more young people graduated from Britain's new mass higher education system last summer than ever before - 275,000 of them.

The figure is a staggering 70 per cent increase from 10 years ago, the council said.

The big jump follows the conversion and up-grading throughout the 1990s of scores of polytechnics and other education institutions around Britain to the status of "university".

It was a government initiative, first mooted by the Conservatives but endorsed by Labour, not only to raise course standards but also to remove the perceived "stigma" suffered by those with a polytechnic education.

But the full effects of the increase in the number of universities - coupled with government campaigns to increase the number of students going on to higher education - is now being felt.

Some 93,500 of last year's graduates, or 34 per cent, cannot find work or have taken jobs that require lower academic qualifications.

Of this figure, higher education researchers say, a startling 6,545 people with degrees are unemployed, sitting at home, many of them supported by parents or claiming government unemployment benefits.

They have been unable to find work to meet their qualifications and are unwilling to take humbler jobs.

Of last year's graduates, about 18 per cent found work as secretaries or clerks while about 9 per cent settled for jobs as sales assistants.

A smaller percentage, amounting to a few hundred people, took on more mundane work such as delivering milk or working in hotels or restaurants, while a handful decided to secure employment in more exotic fields, such as lap dancing clubs.

The trend of an uncertain and less-than-satisfying future for graduates in Britain looks set to continue.

Five years ago, when there were 260,000 graduates, 16 per cent took jobs as clerks or secretaries and 7 per cent as sales assistants.

About the same number were unemployed after job-hunting for a year. - ST