You make some good points. I would argue that in today's society it is possible to bypass the university system and still establish solid, well-earning careers. The amount of freely available information and resources makes this possible, without accumulating the massive debt that universities are now famous for. Perhaps this is their way of trying to keep themselves relevant? I know for certain careers (doctors for example) there is no way around a university path, but these careers seem more the exception than the rule. My degree is in the social sciences, but my career is in IT. I am mostly self-taught, though I have invested a small amount in online video training to supplement my knowledge.

A true story being told, that in a local university in my area, a professor was forced to produce a fake transcript for his doctorate qualifications because the university wanted to go up with their rank at some well known chartered ranking organization, so they can sell more of their degrees in the end.
Another funny phenomenon is that, in HKG, when you claim that you graduated from some prestigious fancy discipline from some unknown uni who also work for some unwelcomed political parties (has connection to China etc), you are most likely to buy from it.... And they also would break the law when they went to "belt and road" stuff in China for visiting prostitutions, how shameful.

"Students, Drugs and Suicide Rates..." is a headline I'd like to see featured and aired in mainstream media. No, not recreational drugs. The SSRI-types. But that's a tangent.

Anyway.

I'm in the opinion that the bright kids of today would do themselves much good by educating themselves at their own lab/studio/bedroom since we have all the means needed today. Unless they really want to become a doctor or architect or any profession that requires specific licenses protected/regulated by law. I'm also interested in how "real professors" would interact with eager students outside of the established institutions. E-learning will be mainstream in the near future, I'm certain.

Also to put it somehow in tune with this forum, I'm looking forward to using VR for (re-)learning sciences (as well as languages and the arts). 😎 Hmm we should have a smiley with a headset now...

Education most certainly is a business. Like all businesses they are stuck trying to find ways to grow and have more and more profit. In this day an age it's not enough for a business to jut make money, it has to make more money year after year in order to be considered successful. If I am a CEO for a 1 billion and 200 million of that is profit. That not enough to just stay that way year after year even though its making money it's not considered to have growth so stock value stays the same or goes down. It all boils down to public companies making money for their stock holders and private companies following the same model as private companies much of the time.

That being said. I have never been to college/University. I was the sort of person who didn't like school or learning things that I wasn't actually interested in. It is possible to make a good career for yourself without higher education, but it is harder and it takes longer to climb the ladder. You have to really have an aptitude for what you want to do to make it happen, and not everyone can do it. Even then you have to have the type of management which recognizes your talent instead of worrying abut the "Do you have a education?" checkbox.

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PeterLI wrote:

I hold 2 associate, 2 bachelor and 2 master degrees. Fortunately EU education used to be (near) free. 😀

Ha that much education would probably cost more then I would make in half my life based on today's costs.

In Australia education is one of our main export industries 😀

Pay for a degree, get a VISA basically 😊

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

In Australia education is one of our main export industries 😀

Pay for a degree, get a VISA basically 😊

I got my degree a couple of years before this "model" became entrenched and count my lucky stars - kids these days pay a lot more than I did.

It's going to be a very different world when my kids are university aged, but I (have to) believe that people entering the job market who know how to solve a problem and who have people skills (a rare commodity in my experience) will always succeed, degree or not.

I'm actually more worried about scientific research getting corrupted by big companies.
At some point a great discovery is made: "Thingy A is proven to be bigger than thingy B!!!"
One year later: "Thingy B is actually bigger than thingy A!!!"
One more year later "Thingy A turned out to be bigger, but thingy C is even bigger!"
And why is so much research not even reproduceable? One big scientific study turns out to prove some medicine does A or B and only 10 years later some other study finds that this is simply not the case at all!

And about what PeterLi mentioned: In EU it gets more expensive, soon only the rich will be able to actually get an education good enough to become a dishwasher 🤣

Grew up in Australia and never went to Uni, I did get a diploma in IT from TAFE though (I guess TAFE is similar to collage?)
That was good as it was all hands on playing with servers in the labs and fraction of the cost. So I at least semi knew what I was looking at 1st day at work, which I did get within the first 6 month of looking. I really cant think what advantage going to Uni would have been.

But in countries like Asia, where everyone has at least 1 degree in something and there are 100's of people applying for the same job. I can see how being the only one without a degree automatically gets you dropped from the selection list, maybe even if you do have experience.
The problem is now everyone has that 1st degree, so now you need that 2nd degree to stand out, or a higher degree, or whatever. Its kind of like inflation I guess.