To be fair, modern university was originally sold on the idea of getting more people into university research labs where they could work to develop and take own

To be fair, modern university was originally sold on the idea of getting more people into university research labs where they could work to develop and take ownership of new capital. This is where the idea that you will make more money if you go to university comes from. As capital is a multiplier on labour, labour * capital = higher income over labour alone. Of course, people don't listen and the vast majority just went and got jobs working for someone else's existing capital after spending a modicum of time in university classrooms, somehow thinking that is the same thing. As a result, the higher income and other promises never materialized. Incomes have held quite stagnant even as more and more people graduate from university. I can see why educators are annoyed that the grand hope for a future paved with intensive capital creation ended up being just a bunch of dumb-dumbs who believe they need to tick a box. But it is still their bread and butter. Reality has to be faced. But perhaps what they really are annoyed by is that they equally failed to create capital themselves, and thus try to sooth the pangs of failure with pretending "Oh, I was just here to become a better person!"?