How Scotland stacks up

The most recent UK National Student Survey suggests that Scotland's universities are the best place to pursue a higher education in the UK, with overall satisfaction reaching a three-year high at 87 percent.

Earlier this year, the official British national statistics figures on graduate destinations, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, showed that graduates from Scotland's 19 top higher education institutions had better prospects within six months of graduation than their peers in the rest of the UK.

They showed graduates from Scottish universities had the highest rate of positive destinations (work and/or further study) at 91 percent (UK average 88 percent).

Of those in employment, a higher percentage of graduates from Scotland's universities were in professional-level jobs 69 percent (UK average 65 percent).

Graduates from Scottish universities had the highest mean average starting salaries in the UK at 22,500 pounds ($37,278), compared with the UK average of 21,000 pounds.

A smaller percentage of graduates from Scotland's universities were found to be unemployed six months after graduation than across the rest of the UK at 6 percent (UK average of 8 percent).

For China Daily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 09/05/2014 page25)