SIXTY per cent of university students return to live and work in the Island within ten years of graduating, the first survey of its kind in Jersey has revealed.

Education president Senator Mike Vibert said that the findings of the Jersey Graduate Survey exploded the myth that students costing the taxpayer an average of £12,000 a year were turning their backs on the Island.However, a survey of current students which was run parallel to the Graduate Survey found that whereas 56 per cent of students said they wanted to return before starting their studies, just 36 per cent felt the same after finishing their degree.Expensive housing, expensive travel, overcrowding and poor choices of employment were top of the list of the downsides given by those questioned.

Currently, 1,309 students – 43 per cent of the Island’s young people of that age – take degree courses or go away to study for Higher National Diplomas.

They study at more than 190 institutions.