That being the case, it says a lot for "Free University education"
Free, but not meaningless or compulsory.
A compulsory degree is a worthless scrap of paper, and probably the finest way possible of stultifying any real talent, along with considering managers and supervisors as a group worthy of greater pay than the trained and talented people that they rely on to actually make the money. I have seen plenty of good craftspeople become very indifferent managers, along with plenty of poor ones become quite good managers. They are different jobs, but the rewards rarely reflect the value of the individual to the company. With the present day worship of paper certificates by the mediocre, and an academic industry seeing a huge self interest in fuelling this worship, we are running up a blind alley.
I don't often get accused of cheering the tories along, but occasionally, governed by the law of averages, or sheer desperation, they get something right. If the false premise that created the vast over-sizing of the academic industry creating a pretend qualification for everybody is exposed as the sham that it always was and the bubble gets burst, there is a chance that in a generation or two, we can get back to actually earning a living, rather than just pretending to. The trick will be in keeping the worthwhile parts, but I feel that the rewards will go to the smoothest talkers, so no real change there.
There, that feels better.