Student interns 'three times more likely to get top jobs' In total, students in Britain will make an average of 7.1 job applications by the end of their course, compared with 5.7 a few years ago, it emerged. At one university - the London School of Economics - students had made more than 11 job applications each. The disclosure - in a study by High Fliers Research - underlines the importance of standing out in the jobs market. It comes weeks after research by the London School of Economics found that students with a good degree - a 2:1 or better - earned at least £2,000 a year more than classmates who narrowly gained a 2:2. The value of internship has also been thrown into sharp focus recently after the Government's new social mobility tsar, James Caan, criticised parents who used their influence to secure work experience at top companies, warning that it risked giving them an unfair advantage. He said children should be forced to find their own way, although it later emerged he had employed his own daughters within his own organisation. It has been a view reinforced by Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, who has been an outspoken critic of unpaid internships. Martin Birchall, managing director of High Fliers Research, said: "Work experience is no longer an optional extra for university students, it's an essential part of preparing for the graduate job market. Students who just focus on their degree studies without spending time in the workplace are unlikely to develop the skills and interests that graduate employers are looking for. The study was based on a survey of 18,252 final year students from 30 universities - a fifth of the total number of undergraduates in the year group. It emerged that 44 per cent of finalists were expecting to join the jobs market straight from university - up from 36 per cent in 2009 and 2010. Just 11 per cent of students said they would take a break after graduating - usually to go travelling - the lowest proportion on record. Students were more likely to apply for jobs early, with four-in-10 making applications by the September of October of the final year - up from just a quarter a decade ago. The study added: "Thirty-six per cent of applicants who had done an internship or other vacation work with a graduate employer had received at least one definite job offer by March 2013, compared with just 11 per cent of applicants who'd had no careers-related work experience whilst at university."