As pilots we are in the books from day 1 of flying school till retirement. People that do not acknowledge that definitely do not fly aircrafts for a living. As a professional pilot be it either Airline, Corporate or whatever You are constantly exposed to thousands of pages of information varying from Your aircraft manuals, Your company manuals, bulletins, company memos, specific company manuals, airfield specific briefing and so on and on for countless of sources of information. The ATPL is just the first step that gets You to all this kind of source of knowledge that must be well mastered during day to day ops for safe and efficient flights. Experience is and always will be one of the key aspects of our profession, that is for sure. But experience has a limit as learning only by experience in our domain can result in some dangerous situations... there must be sound academic knowledge and common sense before that. All this knowledge that is not checked as some say every six months or during sim checks or every year during a line check but every single flight, as every single flight has the potential to become a sim scenario and viceversa. As I believe we all agree on the above having a recognition for our preparation as professionals with a degree-like title is something that we do deserve especially nowadays where if You look up on Universities websites worldwide You get some ridiculous curricula. I am not talking about getting ourselves an Aerospace Engineering or whatever sort of degree, but simply some kind of degree in "Aviation disciplines" or whatever so that If You worked your arse off to get an engineering degree You don't get mixed up with people that didn't but pilots can get what is in my advice the right recognition for their constant hard work.