Higher Education, revenue and employability : a global comparative study

On July 2, 2025, the academic strategy and educational engineering consulting firm Paxter published the results of a global study on the links between economic development, access to higher education, and employability. Unprecedented in its scope, this research—conducted by Pierre Aliphat, Nikola Damjanovic, and Pierre Tapie—is based on a sample of 140 countries. It cross-references several variables : GDP per capita in purchasing power parity (GDP/Capita (PPP)), higher education access rates, and six types of unemployment rates (general, graduate, non-graduate, youth, young graduate, and young non-graduate).The study’s innovative dimension lies primarily in the density of data processed, covering countries representing more than 90% of the world’s population and youth, with higher education access rates studied individually for each country. The findings suggest that beyond the level of education, it is indeed the relevance of qualifications for employment and for the stage of economic development that determines individuals' employability.