| HN Mirror

Yes, that is correct. Obviously, with rising numbers of University graduates the situation is beginning to change -- albeit at a much slower rate than in the US. There are plenty professions that do not require a BA.[2]

I agree with the sentiment, by the way. University access in this sense[1] isn't intrinsically desirable. Quite the opposite. For a large chunk of professions, higher education is in fact a waste of money and incurs significant opportunity/real costs for the student. (Data entry with 150,000$ debt in addition to losing out on a similar amount of salary?) It's nice that a degree mill like the University of Phoenix has more students than half of Germany, but I don't understand why that's necessarily a strength. A significant proportion (> 60%?) will regret that degree.

[1] There are two interpretations of the notion. First, you want everybody's chances to be equal. That is, no racial or social discrimination when it comes to HE access. Second, you want everybody to go to university. That seems highly, highly inefficient. (Not all people require HE, even if you consider education an intrinsic good. Non-broken high school education help.) [2] It's important to acknowledge the cultural differences here: BAs (i.e., limited primary college degrees) were introduced very recently. Up until 2004-2005, you'd always graduate with Diplom or Magister which go a lot further than US BAs.