What I hate is the lies used to justify this. "Graduates earn £400,00 more in a lifetime" is a load of balls. An
average graduate may earn that much more, but that is not what some inumerate woman from the government said. She effectively said all do, which is obviously crap. I'll never earn what plumbers earn round here. None of the jobs I have ever held required a degree. I coud have earned the same at a given age with just A levels, but earned for 3 year in the meantime, so I have lost 3 years' earnings.
Not only that but it is irrelevant. You are comparing two groups of people who are not distinguished by a single characteristic, a degree. The groups have great differences in average academic ability as well as many other characteristics that may be beneficial.
Thank you for reading my pet annoyance of the past few weeks.
I also agree with Melchet - what is the point of sending everyone to university? We could afford it when it was around 20%, a reasonable proportion.