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Male graduates are paid significantly more than their female counterparts just three and a half years after graduating, a pan-European study has found.

The European Commission-funded research found that across Europe, male graduates will earn an average £19,600 after this time. Women will earn an average of £15,800.

The figures for Britain showed a similar gap: £21,800 for male graduates and £17,700 for females. The results of the study, which covers 11 European countries, were announced at a conference on Wednesday organised by the Open University's Centre for Higher Education Research and Information.

The figures also show that UK graduates have a much better opinion of the higher education they received than do graduates from other parts of Europe.

Where 50 per cent of UK respondents rated the academic advice they got as "good" or "very good", the figure for Europe was just per cent.