The advent of UK university tables meant that good grades no longer became an aspirational target for marks – but rather a minimum threshold to ward off low rankings. The proportion of English graduates getting ‘good honours’ – a First or 2:1 – has leapt from 47% in the mid 1990s to 79% now. At the same time, England is the only country in the OECD where the literacy and numeracy levels of 16 to 24-year-olds is no greater than that of 55 to 65-year-olds.