FL,
I must admit that I am out of touch with the current way of things at Universities - I too attended a university when we were among the top 5% of school leavers.
I am not trying to suggest that doing a degree would be a good way of selecting pilots, in fact it is probably exactly the wrong thing to do. But if pilots want a decent wage, then there has to be some form of exclusivity (supply and demand and all that) and that means training must weed out the unsuitables.
HF,
Having flown North Sea myself, there are far more important, well trained and qualified people sat in back of the machines than in the front. I sat both front and back.