This is just my person experience from interviewing lots of UK graduates. The problem seems to be that there is overwhelming pressure to get a candidate in and out in three years no matter what. It is not that the average UK student is any worse than anywhere else, just that the extremely weak candidates are pushed through despite having nothing more than a weak honours degree.
My post was more a lament over the damage good candidates suffer from this policy than any criticism of UK graduates in general.
I agree with you. A PhD (then) student I know was supplied with a Comp Sci Masters student from the uni to help her set up a website for data collection across Europe. She complained to me that it didn't work and I had a look.
It was shocking. The standard was worse than that of a disinterested hobbyist - I wish I was exaggerating - and it didn't work at all. It actually counted as his final project (or whatever they were calling it) and they passed him. He now has a Masters.
Needless to say, I rewrote the entire thing for her and it worked and she's now a PhD and I'm a co-author on a published paper. I know an awful lot of PhDs, and it's clearly an overrated qualification, but Masters and degrees are barely worth the paper they're written on.
I don't even have a degree, so perhaps I would say that, but Google agrees… ;-)
My post was more a lament over the damage good candidates suffer from this policy than any criticism of UK graduates in general.