Which country really has the cleverest students?

In its annual Education at a Glance, the OECD after comparing the ability of graduates in different countries announced that Japan has the cleverest students in the world.



Testing literacy skills among graduates, the results show a very different map of higher education than university ranking tables, which are dominated by US and UK universities, such as Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge and UCL.

Andreas Schleicher, the OECD's education director, says the results show ability levels can "vary hugely among people with similar qualifications". They might all have degrees, but "there are major differences in the quality of higher education". He added, "When it comes to advanced literacy skills, you might be better off getting a high school degree in Japan, Finland or the Netherlands than getting a tertiary degree in Italy, Spain or Greece."



The reason behind the difference in university rankings and test results could be that although the university rankings measure reputation and staff ratios to research output, they do not compare the ability of students who have been taught in these universities.

The OECD runs the Pisa tests, which compare standards in secondary schools in more than 70 countries. None of the countries in the top places make much of an appearance in conventional university rankings. This means that while the names of US Ivy League universities are familiar around the world, Norwegian and Australian universities seem to be turning out more capable graduates.

The success of a country such as Finland in the quality of its graduates could owe as much to its school system as its universities, according to Ben Sowter, director of the QS World University Rankings.



Here are the OECD's top 10 highest performing graduates:

1. Japan

2. Finland

3. Netherlands

4. Australia

5. Norway

6. Belgium

7. New Zealand

8. England

9. United States

10. Czech Republic

This article originally on BBC.