> University is a place where teachers and students who are interested in a field meet to learn and research together. Modern Uni has often forgotten that, but if the students treat it as such it works in this way. We have to tell students how they can get positive experiences out of the current system - by trying to do so, they will change the system from within.

I agree with you that most do not take advantage of the opportunities that exist on some University campuses; personally speaking I had to do my Flow Cytometry training at the Scrip's Research Institute (where several Nobel Laureates were on staff) because my campus only had one FACScan on campus and it was often reserved months ahead of schedule. That the only time I ever sought anything from what my University offered and it failed to deliver. (I won't even talk about how hard it was to get into the lower/upper division classes for my Major, either.)

And while this ended up being a good opportunity for me in the long run as it was both free for me as a local student it also helped me network for job interviews in the Industry, the truth this was happening at the same time I was working 40+ hours in catering as prep cook/chef. I couldn't afford to eat outside of work due to tuition/books obscenely high rent and had to stop attending on daily basis and set up a study group where we recorded lecture on voice recorders because gas shot up to $5+/gallon and many of us were struggling to keep up with expenses as we all worked.

Hell, I showed up to my Microbiology final after an 11 hour service at a lunch and dinner banquet for AMD only hours before the exam and I had to tell my professor I needed to have a few drinks during the exam just to stay awake and he reluctantly accepted as he understood what I had to do for work.

I think you HIGHLY underestimate how broken this situation really is because of your idealized experience, and you assume it is a choice to have to have our attention so grossly divided solely because of the economic distress it demands of some students.

And this is mainly because University can charge what they do and has never come back to reasonable costs and they ultimately act as the gate keepers into most Industries and force you to contort your Life/Work to suit its demands unless you can afford to stay in University indefinitely.

I hated University, mainly because 75% of it was a total waste of my Time, 15% was useful albeit dated (experimental designs based on 19 century reactions that have been refined and outsourced by Industry for a reason), and the other 10% was actually really worth it under really passionate professor(s) who actually gave a damn about the subject they taught.

That's a horrible ratio for anything with such a high cost, in fact I saw exactly 1 single slide (that they even glossed over) in my entire undergrad for what I'd eventually do in my profession as a Lab Scientist in Diagnostics.

This model has to be disrupted.

Also, I didn't need a school to teach me how to wrench on cars.

I began when I was 11 and even had a stint in professional motorsports as a privateer driver and worked on my own chassis while I was in University where ASE shop foremans and Race Team chief mechanics were recruiting mechanics from the pits during the bubble era; Motorsports was actually my desired profession and University was my plan B before the crises dried up any sponsorship opportunities in the financial crises.

I still ended up in the Auto Industry working for VW/BMW/Nissan after I left the Sciences because of my experience back then. Had the Industry not been so wasteful and broken I might have stayed but I chose to go into Fintech and Culinary instead.

My point being, is that University, and its severe costs, do not reflect the ever-changing Job Market (assuming it ever did) they act as vanguard for and for the costs and time demands it cannot be justified. Much less when you have such blatant corruption [1] staring at you in the face.

Had I not been so multi-faceted in my skill-set I would have been like most of my Millennial cohort with tons of unpayable student debt and ever diminishing prospects in Life instead of the immensely rich career(s) that has spanned 4 different Industries that I can move between depending on the project(s). I'm a total outlier, and to be honest even though my opportunity at SpaceX in post COVID World didn't materialize and I have to go back to Supply Chain/Logistics in the end I still cannot believe most of it actually happened given what a f'd situation I had having gone to University and then being thrown into the abysmal Job Market in 2009. I really feel for those currently graduating in this Market, I really do. They're simply cannon fodder and will soon be forgotten in the news cycle just like we were back then.

They'll know just how expendable they were seen as by this system really soon as they won't be able to pay their debts, which had already exceeded a Trillion+ Bubble in the US prior to COVID.

1: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-college-admissions...