As an employer I totally agree with the idea that an employee with a degree would be a major asset to my business, providing they have considerable work experience in field related to what I do. Trouble is many new graduates can't find jobs when they leave because they have not been trained properly to handle the corporate world at Uni and end up like most of my neighbours and friends children, working in areas unrelated to their qualification for less money.

I know that i am not alone in the business world when I say thet most employer like me prefer older staff with the desire to gain tertiary experience at their expense. I have some older women who have completed qualifications at Uni that have been loyal staff and friends that have grown my business and have a loyal customer following. My competitors with their young graduates have had problems keeping them and they have little or no knowledge on how to deal with customers. If they get 2 years out of them their lucky, I have had 12 years and counting from mine. Great article and i agree.

Would you want a doctor learning on the job on you?

"Is university necessary for all?"
No it is not, because not everyone wants to go to university. Having said that, that does not change a proper education is a basic human right and need. Irrespective of whether we pay for it a few times over and over.
The writer Rennie won't come out directly and say what his real agenda is and that is 'education for the rich' or 'the elite.' The possibilities are there today for the worlds population to live properly in health and comfort. But the governments are not going to allow that to happen. They are going to continue and sharpen up the decades long assault on wages and conditions. To drive living standards down even further. Whilst a small ruling class, a financial aristocracy wallows in obscene levels of wealth and luxury, always at the expense of the majority.
"universities are dumbing down their standards to attract more students."
What the writer neglects to mention, is that education is being turned into a big money spinner. So they have extended class sizes and instigated cuts in services. But at the same time that venal process undermines education.

Kenny yes. Thats how they get their experience. Both my father in Changi as a prisioner of war and my mother in New guinea nursed our troops during WW2. The lessons they recieved their helped them better understand how to deal with paients and with doctors. Mother is ninty-three and still gets cards for special events from former patients, even though she retired over forty years ago.

Interesting article and posts.

As a former uni director I too came up with list along the lines of stevenlmeyers post.

We improved the unemployment figures
We were an adult creche
We offered psychological counselling services
We decoded assignments where students couldn't spell or know the grammar rules
We were training people for the service sector

Whitlam threw open the uni doors and made education free for the boomers in the hope that a more educated population would improve GDP.

It didn't improve GDP a bit but it did give people the opportunity to express their opinions in a more vocal and articulate manner. The art of convincing people is another matter entirely.

I agree with the general thrust of the article. Someone wrote a very good online article a week or so about the building trade and apprentices. We need to raise the monetary incentives for the trades and destigmatise the trade sector.

There are far, far, far too many universities and university students in Australia. Every single one of those Dawkin's Universities is a waste of time and money. Universities are for the very brightest and most highly academically motivated. Most of what is taught at the Dawkins Universities is just group therapy.