Unsuitable University degrees

The current Labour government has been very keen to widen the university attendance to around 50% of the populace leaving school. All part of the Lisbon Agenda to create a "Knowledge Based Economy" which Tony Blair signed up to. The only problem being that:

1. There are not nearly enough jobs for these Graduates
2. The glut of graduates is pushing pay down from "reasonable" to "low"
3. Pay of practical work like Plumbers and Electricians is booming thanks to the lack of students going into these professions.
4. The University courses are often not relevant, useful or effectively targeted at the Industry jobs they are aiming at.

The arguments in favour of "waste of time" University degrees are:

• It's "an experience", learning to live and manage on your own (not unlike you would if you did an apprenticeship with others on a programme).
• University and school should teach learning skills and not teach relevant knowledge which will be directly useful in a Job (like a programming language, project planning, entrepreneurial or business skills).

Debt is the other big issue, I was the last year to receive funding for University, the following year had to pay £1,000 top up fees (and no funding), the years after this increased to £3,250 and I understand it is going up to 6,000 per annum next. You even have to pay £500 fees during your year-out industrial placement/internship! Universities are ironically not regulated by the government as Education establishments, but as private companies under all legislation, like Data Protection etc. Many are making lots of profit from the new government drive for University education. I've written about university top up fees before.

How many jobs are their really for the glut of Documentary Photographer graduates? Graduating with £15k debt and no job prospects. Or the Video Game Designers, with only around 30 UK companies, and probably 2 designers in each, where are the 200+ graduates going to find work? Tesco or Poundland probably. They won't then be over the threshold to start paying back that £15k debt either then.

Soooo many University courses are not relevant, English Lit (does this really open many jobs.. other than English teacher?). Even Electronics, we have few Electronics jobs in the UK for graduates. Most likely they will work as technical engineers, ordering parts for machines which are maintained, something they could have done without a degree. We need to bring back Technical Colleges, and Polytechnics, teaching/training for jobs which are actually available in industry.

Didn't Derby University get in trouble for running a "Kite Flying module"? A quick search could not find anything on it tho.