ENG 123,
For your information, I went through the exam / oral process for my Licence and frankly there is no comparison between obtaining a vocational qualification to support the legislation ( and that is precisely what a Licence is ) and reading for a Degree--which I did and thus have. Enrol at your local University, fund the course yourself, take and pass ALL the exams and the essay to accompany each module, carry on working while you are doing so and then come back in say 5 years time when you have graduated and contrast and compare. It's called life long learning and I am a passionate advocate of such. As Tempsford so correctly states, times are changing and the sooner the better in the maintenance world.