One thing I think its important to remember, and that alot of graduates dont figure out until they leave, is that wether your a person or a country, the harsh r

One thing I think its important to remember, and that alot of graduates dont figure out until they leave, is that wether your a person or a country, the harsh reality is that the world really owes you nothing. If an country or person doesn't produce in demand skills and produce in demand products, then it doesn't have any leverage with which to get the things it demands itself. An example of one such demand might be... a freely accessable largely tax funded teriary education system. If we can't fund good education, then our living standards fall rapidly. Its the governments job to protect our living standards, and thus they might take interest in pushing people towards in demand skills. This doesn't have to be as grotesque as you might think. Note that in the past, while University has always been 'open' in the sense that candidates are free to persue any course that they provide, student population was much, much lower. A bigger potion of the countries skills were much more commonly attained by on the job training, and apprenticeships, which are implicitly market driven.