University Degrees - Do they still hold the same value?

This topic stems from an article written on Cbc.ca by Heather Mallick discussing the validity of a university degree. She's basically arguing that because everyone nowadays is walking around with a degree and employers are seeing it as a "first-step" it is just a tax-saving money sink for the institutions and governments involved, with relatively little benefit to the student. Essentially, she believes universities should go back to only providing education to the top tier students who show considerable aptitude, instead of accepting students with lower standards and dragging them along for at least for years while the student doesn't even know what he/she wants to do.

I'll start by saying that without trying to be elitist, I do agree with some of the basic points put forward by Mallick. First of all, we all know there is a significant percentage of people in university who just shouldn't be - usually with the help of parental coercion. Stuff like, "you have to do it", "you won't get a job otherwise" or "I saved for years to get you in" are common things to hear. So, trimming out the people who don't want to in the first place would be a good step. That bumps up the value of a degree a little bit.

Secondly, I think many universities DO currently accept people with lower than acceptable marks. I seriously think that if you aren't trying in high school, chances are you're not going to magically turn it around in university. It's a waste of time for all parties involved, and if you do scrape through, congrats, you've just devalued your degree for everyone else. You've probably found the "academic system" itself to be boring, and there are many other things that could make you just as much money that you would be much more interested in: specialized trades, armed forces, peripheral professional services, colleges, sports, music, film, writing, etc, etc, etc.

But, one thing I will argue with is the value of the experience. Over a 4 year period in university, you learn a lot about yourself in a lot of different ways. No matter what, you're probably going to grow in a bunch of different ways, and in ways you'd never expect. This is one of the greatest values of a degree - it has personal meaning and it's a salute to yourself that you've achieved growth. So basically, even if its extrinsic value is declining because everyone is getting one and it's seen as a necessity in most of today's job market, it still has intrinsic value and provides confidence for people moving forward in life.

So in the end, although a lot of deserving people are having to go further academically to differentiate themselves from the pack, making university degrees generally achievable is probably a boost to the morale of people as a whole. And I'm all for that.