Saltpetre,
Thank you for giving me hope.

My degrees provided value for money: I needed one (BEd) to get a job; another (BA) has made me more employable due to my increased subject knowledge; the third (MA) has helped me to climb the ranks a little quicker, again because of my increased subject knowledge and also because of my demonstrated commitment to continued learning.

So they have provided me with value for money - but have they done the same for the taxpayer?

Maybe not. I think I'm well-suited to my job, and I would have had the knowledge and skills to be a good teacher as a result of my curiosity and determination to be better at what I do. Three degrees have served me well, but perhaps others with exactly the same qualifications would not be as well-equipped, and others with fewer qualifications would be as good or better.

The suggestion of 'horses for courses' raises one of the biggest problems with universities: admissions procedures. Rather than selecting students based on their aptitudes, universities select students according to demand - the applicants' results from their schooling are used to calculate a single score, and they are selected or rejected through the ranking of those scores. People with great marks who would make terrible doctors/vets/physiotherapists get into those courses; people with mediocre marks who would make excellent doctors/vets/physiotherapists do not. People who achieved well in maths and sciences but are terrified of speaking in front of audiences get into law programs; People who did well in the humanities and just scraped through with the minimum requirements in a token science subject become engineers.

I reckon the admissions centres need to be abolished and university faculties should take responsibility for their own enrolment processes. Then, perhaps, they could pick those likely to succeed rather than those who achieved success in another system.

It won't sort out the employment prospects of graduates, but it will at least increase the likelihood of producing graduates who may be capable of contributing to the world in their chosen fields.