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Most inter-state comparisons of education systems are limited to figures on participation in higher education. In contrast, this paper presents a new metric that takes into account the hierarchical structure of education systems and focuses on access to higher education. These continuation rates were collected for up to 180 countries and 120 years and show that, although expansion started in the 1990s, a relatively high number of education systems currently still have rather elite access to higher education, despite high enrolment rates in secondary schools. Interstate differences are attributed in this paper, among other things, to colonial pasts. Although a clear association of rising continuation rates and rising unemployment among the highly educated is not apparent, it is worth considering regional variation in labour markets. This is because in the regions of West Asia and North Africa, which are characterised by above-average youth unemployment, the unemployment rate among the highly educated is also rising sharply. Here, expanding access to higher education does not appear to fulfil the promise of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]