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They made it big at a time when a degree would have put them in the top 5% of the population. But the odds now may favour the focused “drop-out”. Research conducted by Oxford University suggests that in terms of determining an individual’s success in life, gaining a degree has become less important.

Since the 1960s, liberal thinkers have seen the expansion of higher education as the key to breaking down the class system. As high technology drove the economy, formal qualifications would become more valuable and social mobility would increase.

In the late 1980s, Kenneth Baker, the Conservative education secretary, ordered a doubling of student places over 25 years. In his case it was to satisfy the expected appetite of big business. Blair is now shepherding yet more students into universities in the name of equality.

Does it still follow that every brightish young person is better off for a spell at university? The Oxford research suggests that education is having less of an impact than predicted. In the 1970s, gaining a degree upped a student’s chances of climbing the class ladder by nearly 2Å times. By the 1990s this rate had been lowered to two. Education, the Oxford study concludes, is becoming less important as a driver of social mobility.

The study found that this trend was reflected in job advertisements. Employers are less interested in hard academic qualifications and more interested in a person’s “soft” interpersonal skills.

Of 5,000 recruitment adverts, researchers found that only one-quarter spelt out the need for formal qualifications. Instead of a degree, headhunters said they wanted “character”, “presence” and “good manners” alongside “communications” and “team working skills”.

The researchers say they are not surprised that education is fading in importance as a determinant of success. When only a small proportion of the population had a degree, the qualification reliably marked them out as special. Now that exclusivity has gone.

At the same time the economy has changed. There are many high-tech jobs that require specialist qualifications, but the main growth over the past 30 years has been in the service sector where interpersonal skills and “emotional intelligence” rule.

The change, say recruitment experts, means that graduates must work harder to differentiate themselves from their contemporaries. A year spent learning a foreign language abroad or doing voluntary work in Africa could provide a “selling point”, for example.

For those going straight to university, picking a respected degree course is now of paramount importance. Students completing such courses might distinguish themselves further by studying for a postgraduate qualification.

Michelle Jackson, a recruitment expert, said: “Employers would be reluctant to say a degree doesn’t mean anything, but it is obvious that as more and more of the population end up with degrees, employers have to find more and more ways of discriminating between them.”

Some companies are already targeting bright school- leavers with the aim of fast-tracking them into senior roles. For example, Marks & Spencer, according to John McElwee, its head of recruitment, is primarily interested in youngsters who have leadership and team-working skills, assertiveness and the ability to influence and negotiate. Samantha Browning, 25, left school with three A-levels and took a £20,000-a-year job with M&S rather than go to university. She now has 90 staff under her.

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