> Given that they used to be meaningful That's the thing. They weren't for most professions. Even for the professions that do require abstract theoretical know

> Given that they used to be meaningful That's the thing. They weren't for most professions. Even for the professions that do require abstract theoretical knowledge, it's debatable how much of the degree itself was actually meaningful vs it just being easier to use as a long weed-out process than a set of exams. They were mostly a status marker. Pre-WWII, colleges were almost entirely finishing schools for the rich and networking opportunities. And they also ran research because being a patron of the sciences has been high status for ~700 years. There's also an argument about universities being useful for society, as they create well-rounded citizens. That argument may have some validity, but it's unclear why that was put in as a prerequisite for having a generic corporate job. They were also excellent proxies for IQ, which employers aren't allowed to discriminate based on this side of the 70s. My guess is that companies dropping degree requirements means this correlation is breaking down. The only way to make the degrees meaningful in that sense again would be to stop granting degrees to low IQ people.