If readers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland happened to pay attention to any news outlet last Thursday, they would have seen the usual pictures of ecstatic school-leavers who had made their required A-level grades and have got into the university of their choice ¨C or at least scrambled into an alternative through clearing.

Parents play their part in this frenzy with their soft indoctrination of their children into the notion that they must get into university to be successful in life. And sometimes they may be right ¨C but that doesn¡¯t mean that the system is healthy.

The policy of mass higher education is based on the assumption that no matter how many graduates are produced, the economy will be able to provide them all with genuine graduate jobs. But the evidence of this assumption¡¯s falsity ¨C at least in the UK ¨C is mounting.

Graduate pay premiums are falling or non-existent, and stories abound of graduates struggling to find any suitable jobs even after making hundreds of job applications. Meanwhile, I have uncovered yet more dysfunction, in the form of employers advertising jobs as being for graduates only even when there is no genuine reason why you need a degree to do any of the tasks mentioned. I have uncovered for my latest report, , include trainee estate agents, customer after-care administrators, sales administrators, junior marketing assistants and shop assistants.

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While these are perfectly good jobs, are these really the roles that today¡¯s school-leavers have in mind for themselves as they jump for joy on the local newspaper photographer¡¯s count of three? Surely not. But pity the poor kids whose three A*s at A level don¡¯t even qualify them for these menial roles any more as employers decline to take a punt on a gawky 18-year-old, preferring to wait until they are at least 21.

And you can hardly blame them. If they only need to pay barely above the minimum wage to attract applications from more mature graduates, why wouldn¡¯t they? It¡¯s no consequence to the employers that those graduates have had to take on tens of thousands of pounds of debt while they¡¯ve been maturing. And the graduates who find themselves in these pretend graduate jobs will often be happy to go along with the pretence for the self-esteem and CV purposes.

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It¡¯s a farce. We have created a system where whole rafts of graduates end up doing exactly the same jobs for the same pay that they would have done a generation ago after leaving school at 18 ¨C or even 16. And I don¡¯t believe for a moment that many of those jobs have become so much more demanding than they used to be that they genuinely require degrees. More training may be required, but that can be done just as effectively on-the-job; and yes, technology has moved on but most 10-year-olds are more au fait with it than their parents are.

Furthermore, my research found that the prejudice against non-graduates doesn¡¯t just affect entry-level jobs. Non-graduates run the risk of suffering discrimination later in their careers, too, as many senior jobs also stipulate that only graduates may apply, even though candidates will also be expected to demonstrate proven ability, with several years or even decades of experience on the job. If they have proved that they can do the job, then why does it matter if they are a graduate or not?

Snobbery against non-graduates is nothing new, but governments haven¡¯t helped matters over the years. First polytechnics were allowed to rename themselves as universities rather than proudly differentiating themselves and sticking up for the vocational training on offer. And more recently, degree apprenticeships were created, giving a clear signal that only by association with a degree do apprenticeships have any real worth. On the eve of A-level results day, the education secretary implied that school-leavers entering the workforce and not going to university are ¡°¡±.

Advertising pretend graduate-only jobs is indirect discrimination by age as it unfairly excludes anybody under 21. Regulatory bodies should also be mindful that it is illegal for either employers or agencies to charge a fee to candidates for giving them a job ¨C but with graduate-only jobs they are enabling universities to charge a quasi-fee just for the chance to be considered for a job.

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Student debts are a loathsome burden, but it is a double insult if the degree is nothing more than a ticket to enter the market even for near-minimum-wage, largely unskilled jobs. The UK government needs to stop this circus and cap university participation at 25 per cent or less of the population, ban pretend graduate-only job adverts and make sure that employers open up all trainee jobs to school-leavers to give them alternatives to university.

Paul Wiltshire is the father of four UK university graduates and current?students. His report, , is published on his website,?University Watch.