The basic principle is that an educational requirement must have a significant relationship to successful job performance or there must be other business necessity, since a degree requirement may disqualify members of a protected group at a substantially higher rate than non-protected group members (adverse impact).
A degree qualification for professional and highly skilled jobs is generally more supportable than, for example, blue-collar jobs. Educational requirements are even more supportable if “knowledge equivalent to degree” is used.
If you choose to use a degree as a qualification you should consider the negative impact it may have on the diversity of your pool and be prepared to support such a requirement if challenged by an outside agency.
When writing qualifications, can I specify that the people have recent experience?
The recency of a person’s job experience may matter, but only in fields that have changed significantly, and remember that an applicant may be able to keep him or herself current in other ways.
