Well, if the piece of paper wasn’t necessary to make enough money to split an apartment with 3 other strangers, I’m sure fewer people would go.
We really need to stop forcefeeding kids this rubbish anyway.
Your life is not over if you don’t go to college. It should be perfectly acceptable to get other jobs, and see what you want to do in life. There’s no magic pot of jobs for graduates. Office jobs are easily done from overseas. You know what can’t be done by some poor Indian earning $10 a day? Unblocking my toilet. Plastering my walls. Fitting my bathroom. Making my food. Emptying my bins.
Yeah, they’re not glamorous. Yeah, you’re not going to be a billionaire doing those things. But you know what? You weren’t anyway.
Also universities shouldn’t be required for technical jobs. They can be trained. Universities are so research oriented because they were about science and figuring shit out. Healthcare is an excellent example. We require so much education for positions someone can do with half or a quarter of the training time. An 8 year program should be for the top spots and specialists.