It was the greatest day of Sophia Rubie’s young life when she gained a first-class honours degree in English literature. The former student had reached the gold standard, tradition-ally achieved by only a tiny elite, at Edinburgh university, one of Britain’s top academic institutions. A stellar career in publishing awaited her and she had the world at her feet. Or so she thought.

Eight months later, despite applying for dozens of jobs, she is still unemployed. The credit crunch and recession have not helped, of course, but there is another explanation for why employers are not beating a path to her door. New figures obtained by The Sunday Times reveal that, of all the students who graduated from her course last year, a third obtained first-class degrees.

Across the university as a whole, one in five students obtained firsts, up from 17% five years ago. The trend of rewarding an increasing number of students with the highest degree is not restricted to Edinburgh. Grade inflation is taking place at all four of Scotland’s ancient universities. Universities insist their entry requirements and marking procedures have never been more stringent and yet the evidence of the bald statistics are not replicated elsewhere, at primary and secondary level or in the jobs market. Figures published by The Sunday Times today reveal massive failures in the early years of education, with thousands of pupils leaving primary school unable to read, write or count.

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study published at the end of last year revealed that Scottish school pupils are now being outperformed by their counterparts in Kazakhstan, Slovenia and Armenia.

In a study of reading skills among children of primary school age in 45 countries and provinces, Scotland fell from 14th place in 2001 to 26th in 2006, according to research carried out by Boston College in the United States.

A three-year study by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education, published last month, pointed to a worrying lack of progress among pupils in the middle years of their education as they moved to secondary school. It suggested that as pupils reached this critical juncture, the system let them down. The report called for significant improvements in literacy, numeracy, science and modern languages.

Employers’ organisations, such as the Confederation of British Industry, have argued that graduates lack the skills, including numeracy and literacy, necessary for the world of work.

So what is happening? Is it true, as university results suggest, that we are living in an age of unprecedented academic excellence? Or is it more likely, as critics claim, that the universities are perpetrating a massive confidence trick on their students and on society at large, artificially inflating results to make the institutions appear more successful than they are?

Rubie says she is disappointed that her degree doesn’t appear as impressive to prospective employers as she had hoped.

“I was quite optimistic about my employment prospects before I graduated. but I don’t think it makes much difference if you have a first now,” she said.

“The seminars and work I had were quite challenging and there was a lot of pressure. But it was nothing compared to friends at other universities, such as Oxford, who said their workload was horrendous.

“I would agree that it’s probably easier to get a first now and it doesn’t carry the same weight as it used to. They should only be given to the very best students.”

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