London, Nov 25 : One in three British graduates end up in a job that does not call for a degree, a team of researchers has found.

Researchers at the Kent University discovered that those studying art, design and humanities and those from former polytechnics have the worst job prospects, while students of vocational courses, such as law, medicine and teacher training, have good chances of finding degree-level jobs.

For the study, researchers compared the jobs of new graduates with those who completed their studies in 1992, the year when all polytechnics and colleges of higher education were granted university status.

In 1992, one in five male graduates undertook non-graduate work at the age of 25.

However, by last year, the number had shot up to over one in three. Among women, the proportion increased from one in four to just fewer than one in three.

Among creative and arts graduates, almost six out of 10 ended up in jobs for which they were over-qualified, as did 30 per cent of English and humanities graduates.

Meanwhile, only one in 10 who did vocational courses assumed non-graduate jobs, while the figure was one in five among those who did maths and sciences.

Researchers also found that graduates of former polytechnics were three times more likely to end up in a job for which they were over-qualified compared to their Oxbridge counterparts.

"Teenagers and their parents considering university options need to look at the different prospects attached to different types of universities and degrees,” the Telegraph quoted Francis Green, Professor of Economics at Kent University, as saying.

"This information is collected by universities and we are urging the Government to publish it openly,” he added.

Dr Anna Vignoles, from the Institute of Education in London, said the problem was not an oversupply of graduates, but a dearth of those with the right skills.

"In some markets, like arts and humanities, we are over-supplied, but when it comes to maths and science, we still don't have enough people," she said. (ANI)