Are UK students being squeezed out of banks' graduate programmes by overqualified European students?

We don't have any hard evidence to support this. Anecdotally, however, there seems to be some whinging among UK students that they're being overlooked in favour of better qualified, more experienced, candidates from continental Europe.

The whingeing is in evidence here, where various commentators assert British students are hard done by.

For example:

"... My economics/maths degree was full of young British grads, and most of them were rejected by banks. A 29 year old French grad, with 10 internships is more likely to get the 'entry level' graduate programme position - because in Europe you can postpone your degree, your fees are free, and if you fail at getting a job via internship you can apply again and do another 9."

By comparison, UK students have it much harder, complains the commentator:

"In the UK we have to pay for our fees and we can't do endless internships 'til we're 29. Where I used to work, we hired a foreign graduate, who had in essence failed at the 10 banks he interned at previously. I can't help thinking that the young 22 yr old British graduate we rejected would have done better."

Another person (possibly the same one), goes on to say that:

My grad programme (FO) had 80% foreign grads - who were all 28/29 'Grande Ecole' types.

Do you agree? Are UK students being squeezed out? Leave your comments below.