of graduates, appropriately discounted, if that education is to generate positive gains to the economy ( assuming that a worker ’ s earnings equal his or her marginal productivity ). furthermore, if higher education generates positive returns to the economy, it ought to be financeable in principle, because either the state or the student should be able to borrow against future taxes or earnings. in practise, it may be difficult for a student to borrow against his or her future earnings because of financial market imperfections but that could be rectified though policy measures such as student loan guarantees. let us assume that the discount rate for the economy is 15 percent, which is approximately equal to the government ’ s average borrowing costs. this implies that, if the cost of higher education is spread over the working life of the graduate, graduates of higher education must earn approximately shs 3 million more per annum than workers with only secondary education. table 3 median monthly salaries by level of education of worker, 2012 / 13 education level median monthly salary ( shillings ) secondary 160, 000 post - secondary specialisation 310, 000 degree and above 610, 000 source : uganda national household survey 2012 / 13 table 4. 7 the 2012 / 13 unhs revealed that workers with a degree had median monthly earnings of shs 610, 000 which adjusting for inflation is equivalent to shs 800, 000 in 2017 prices ( table 3 ). comparing this with the median monthly earnings of shs 210, 000 ( in 2017 prices ) of a worker with only secondary education indicates that a graduate earns shs 590, 000 extra by virtue of having a higher education degree, the annual increment to income of higher education per worker is, therefore, shs 7 million. hence the annual gain in productivity and income arising from higher education is more than double its costs, discounted over a working life. this means that, in principle, it should be possible to finance the costs of higher education by borrowing against future earnings provided that all of the graduates of higher education can find employment in graduate level jobs. unfortunately, as i have already discussed, less than a quarter of higher education graduates are likely to be employed in graduate level occupations. this reverses the cost benefit ratio for higher education. if three quarters of graduates cannot find graduate level employment, the discounted benefits of higher education, in terms of increased productivity and incomes, are likely to be only about half of the total costs of providing higher education. in these circumstances, it is impossible to

the unified europe continues using a clause that allows it to remain outside the euro bloc, will this not hamper the union in the short and medium term? is this not an ongoing problem for those 313 million citizens of the euro bloc? jean - claude trichet : “ i would draw your attention to the fact that 313 million citizens, even without the united kingdom, is still a little bit more than the united states. personally, i am convinced that the united kingdom will one day join the economic and monetary union because it is in its interests to do so. of course, the decision will be taken by the people of the united kingdom themselves, by way of a referendum. i am convinced of the sincerity of the uk prime minister, who did not conceal the fact that, in his opinion, it would be in the united kingdom ’ s interests to enter the economic and monetary union when the time comes. ” is the first employment contract a necessity for france? jean - claude trichet : “ we do not make judgements on individual measures. i can say that from an economic perspective and from that of the fight against mass unemployment, it is clear that moving towards greater flexibility is moving in the right direction. ” there are those who ask themselves whether france is capable of change at all and capable of implementing any reforms. jean - claude trichet : “ i certainly believe that france, like all european countries, can implement reforms. it has changed profoundly in the last 20 years. but i also think that france, like others in europe, is implementing reforms too slowly, and reform at a slow rate has an associated price. in the world we live in today this has a heavy price. the world nowadays changes very, very, very fast given the challenges of science, technology and globalisation. ” is the wish to see rapid change in france no more than a utopia bearing in mind the current situation? jean - claude trichet : “ i think that the characteristics of each and every country are of course linked to its history. what characterises france historically is slow change over long periods of time, alongside very rapid changes in relatively short periods of time. if we look at the euro area as a whole, then clearly that situation would also be much better if it were to embark on the reforms more quickly. ” do you think that the israeli economy is attractive enough for the europeans today? jean - claude trichet : “ i believe that the israeli economy is definitely a significant one, thanks in particular