"For Most People College is a Waste of Time"

From the WSJ - a different perspective on college (or uni for those north of the 49th parallel):

First, we will set up a single goal to represent educational success, which will take four years to achieve no matter what is being taught. We will attach an economic reward to it that seldom has anything to do with what has been learned. We will urge large numbers of people who do not possess adequate ability to try to achieve the goal, wait until they have spent a lot of time and money, and then deny it to them. We will stigmatize everyone who doesn't meet the goal. We will call the goal a "BA."

[...]

The solution is not better degrees, but no degrees. Young people entering the job market should have a known, trusted measure of their qualifications they can carry into job interviews. That measure should express what they know, not where they learned it or how long it took them. They need a certification, not a degree.

Sounds about right... though in my somewhat limited experience, there's a definite difference between the approaches taken in problem solving between those with undergrad degrees and those without - but that doesn't mean that there aren't exceptions and why shouldn't people have an alternative to proving themselves outside of paying 10-50K / year for 4 years?