Well, let's be realistic. At some point in time the University also stopped being the place where privileged elites, noblemen and merchants and the like, sent t

Well, let's be realistic. At some point in time the University also stopped being the place where privileged elites, noblemen and merchants and the like, sent their children (already destined for reasonably lucrative careers) to become better people and to appreciate refinement in things like Knowledge and Philosophy, rather than just in Money. It's now a really democratic institution, with large sums of taxpayer funding available to people from all walks of life. This is probably a net win, and it shouldn't be seen as ostentatiously degrading to pay some heed to the exigencies of The Real World and outcomes there. The question, naturally, is one of balance, how to avoid both "university as trade school" and ivory-tower head-in-the-clouds detachment from reality.