At the tertiary level, the United States continues to produce a
high proportion of highly qualified people, but other countries are
catching up.
In the United States some 39% of the adult population aged 25-to-64
years are qualified to the tertiary level, well above the OECD
average of 31%. These attainment rates have been historically very
high but now other countries are matching and exceeding this
attainment level .
Some 53% of today¡¦s young people in OECD countries will enter a
university level or equivalent (Tertiary-type A) programme during
their lifetime. These entry rates are 70% or more in Australia,
Finland, Iceland, Poland and Sweden and as high as 89% in
NewZealand.
Rising levels of tertiary attainment seem not to have led to an
¡nflation of the labour-market value of qualifications:
In general, countries have seen an increase in the earnings
advantage for tertiary graduates even in countries where tertiary
expansion has been rapid. Among the countries in which the tertiary
attainment grew by 5% or more between 35-to-44-yearolds and
25-to-34-year-olds, Spain is the only country in which the rapid
expansion in tertiary attainment was associated with a significant
decline in the wage premium that tertiary attainment attracts
during the period 1997 to 2004.
