Popular publishing house announces that university degree no longer a requirement for job applicants

Global publishing group Penguin Random House will no longer require candidates for new jobs to have a university degree, Guardian UK reported.

The company announced that this move was made in order to open up opportunities to attract more varied candidates into publishing, an industry that has been criticised for its lack of diversity.

"The growing evidence shows there is no simple correlation between having a degree and future professional success". Penguin Random House human resources director Neil Morrison told newsmen.

Morrison said: “We want to attract the best people to help grow and shape the future of our company, regardless of their background – and that means that we need to think and act differently. Simply, if you’re talented and you have potential, we want to hear from you. This is the starting point for our concerted action to make publishing far, far more inclusive than it has been to date. Now, we need to be more visible to talented people across the UK."

He added that graduates were still welcome to apply as "they believe this is critical to our future: to publish the best books that appeal to readers everywhere, we need to have people from different backgrounds with different perspectives and a workforce that truly reflects today’s society.”

The move comes just months after PricewaterhouseCoopers announced plans to ditch A-level results when recruiting graduates because of the unfair advantage given to independent school pupils.

Also, accountancy firm Ernst & Young, one of Britain’s biggest graduate recruiters, made a similar announcement, saying in August that it would no longer consider degree or A-level results when assessing potential employees.

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