THE proportion of students leaving university with top honours has reached record levels in the last five years, figures show.

Almost one in four (24 per cent) graduated with a first last year, compared with 17 per cent - just over one in six - in 2011/12, according to data published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

The figures, which cover UK universities and colleges, are likely to spark fresh debate about whether the centuries-old degree classification system is still fit for purpose.

In recent years, a number of employers have stopped asking for specific degree standards, with one expert saying that firms do not want to miss out on highly qualified candidates simply because they did not gain a certain degree.

Overall, in 2015/16, almost three in four students - 73 per cent - were awarded at least an upper second (2:1), compared with 66 per cent just five years earlier.

A breakdown also shows a slight drop in the proportion of students awarded lower honours, with just over a fifth of students (22 per cent) gaining a lower second (2:2) in 2015/16, and 5 per cent graduating with a third.

Graduate recruitment expert Martin Birchall, of High Fliers Research, said some employers are no longer using a "blunt cut-off" of degree classification, a move that comes amid the rise in graduates gaining high honours. 

"In recent years, diversity has become a real issue for many employers and they're keen to have as broad a spread of applicants for their graduate programmes as possible," he said. 

"That means they don't necessarily want to cut out graduates who did not get a first or a 2:1 but have CVs that are jam-packed with other skills and experiences that may be more relevant in the workplace. 

"A number of employers have realised that if they use a blunt cut-off such as a 2:1 or above, they're missing out on some great people, so degree classification has become less important."

"It's very hard to understand why more and more students are getting these top grades.

"Degrees are not benchmarked as a national standard, so there is no way of telling whether individual universities are becoming more generous in the degrees they are awarding or whether standards are genuinely rising."

Publishing firm Penguin Random House UK has announced that it is scrapping the requirement for future workers to have a university degree. 

It said there is increasing evidence that there is no simple link between having a degree and performance in the workplace.