It is commonly said that those who go to university earn £100,000 more than those who don’t so they can pay more for their education. I know several people who went to University in the last 10 years and gained a degree but do jobs that they would have got without a degree. They’re stuck with their education bills and it isn’t clear that they’ll ever get well paid jobs. Two have shown mobility by moving away but even then they’ve not got jobs with any future and so the social mobility isn’t going to happen, in fact it looks like they’ll go down a level.
It is easy to think that with the degree they have a chance for a better job. Also they’ll be doing what their friends are doing. Is this what countries like China are doing, sending people to university on the off chance or for some kind of social therapy. Probably not.
In reality employers might actually think better of some people if they took a more realistic view of their potential and started work while doing part-time study. Many years ago it was almost mandatory for an employer to send young employees to college for one day a week. This target for graduates is just to keep unemployment down when incentives for training should be given employers and it would be doing more for more without giving unreal hopes.