BRITAIN’S top businesses would like to see more graduates entering the job market, not fewer, according to a survey for The Times.

As more than 300,000 applicants are accepted on degree courses today, marking a record year, members of the Institute of Directors have insisted that a degree is a prerequisite for a good job.

The study appears to quash fears of a graduate glut in the job market as the number of young people entering university nears the Government’s target of 50 per cent by 2010, and students face deferred top-up fees of £3,000 for the first time. Over the past 40 years the numbers at university have increased steadily, from about 400,000 in 1963 to about two million today.

According to institute members, the larger the business, the more graduates are needed. Of the 500 members polled, the majority of those employing more than 50 workers said that there were too few graduates to choose from.

Forty per cent of members with more than 200 workers said that they needed more graduates not less, as did a quarter employing between 50 and 200 workers. Overall, 64 per cent thought that there were too few, or the right number, of graduates.

Manufacturing, construction, transport and mining sectors head the list of industries crying out for more graduates — in engineering, the sciences and business, in particular. Almost a third (31 per cent) said they needed more engineers, while 30 per cent were looking for more science graduates.

While only 14 per cent said that they were unhappy with the quality of graduates, Ian Dormer, managing director of Rosh Engineering, in Newcastle upon Tyne, said that there were “too few of the right type.” Each year, his company takes an engineer on a placement, but in the past decade, applicants have plummeted.

“This year we had eight,” he said. “Two from India and Pakistan were outstanding, but they were offered jobs at Xerox before we had a chance.”

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