While the article is not really grounded in reason, it brings up the issue of rising attendance at universities, the actual value of a degree and the cost of funding universities.
Today about 1 in 2 students go to university which compared with the baby boomers (1/10), gen x (1/4) and gen y (1/3)
1 which to the university means a ton more funding (through hecs) but also a requirement to build more buildings and infrastructure which as far as students are concerned is good. However, this has also led to the commoditization of uni degrees and hence the new requirement of experience, which from the viewpoint of a student is upsetting and can make looking for a graduate job quite difficult.
This is because at the end of the day university degrees derive their value from prestige, scarcity, funding (for facilities and research) and (in a chicken and egg problem fashion) cohort networks. These factors separate what would be identical degrees in theory (for example Harvard Finance and Macquarie Finance) creating value. Harvard is world renowned for turning out top graduates (no 2 in the world) and makes Macquarie look paltry (229)
2. Similarly Harvard only has a population of ~ 21,000
3 while Macquarie has ~ 39,000
4. Harvard's Endowment is a huge $37.6 billion USD
3 while Macquarie has a comparatively paltry $745 million AUD (2013)
5. Harvard also has 47 nobel laureates
3 where Macquarie has none
6 <- this is as close as it gets....
At the end of the day
less people need to be going to university in order to make uni viable again. Which means that
- K-12 education needs to be revamped so that more jobs should only require a HSC / TAFE cert
- We as a society need to drop the mentality that you have to go to university to be successful
- For Australian Unis to really be top rank, Funding needs to be increased via de-regulation or other wise (the top ranking Australian Uni ANU received a $1.1 billion endowment (2013)
1:
http://www.mccrindle.com.au/SocialA...osing-the-Right-Course_McCrindle-Research.pdf
2:
http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2015
3:
http://www.harvard.edu/about-harvard/harvard-glance
4:
http://www.mq.edu.au/about/about-the-university/the-macquarie-story/macquarie-at-a-glance
5:
http://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/finance_2013_0.pdf
6:
http://physics.mq.edu.au/news/2014-nobel-prize-physics-macquarie-university-physics/
Yes I know it's not fair to compare a mid tier AUS uni to the 2nd best uni in the world but my goal was to illustrate a point. A top tier uni such as UNSW would of been the same story with a larger student population, a slightly large endowment and still 0 nobel prizes...
Edit: A bit of word vomit there but I hope you understand the point...