I think a big part of the problem is that in the UK people are encouraged by society to study what they are interested in ("it's about expanding your mind") and told that having any degree will give them a big advantage over the competition regardless. This may have been true 30 years ago but it isn't today.
I remember some time ago I was out for a drink with a number of students who were completing a course in film study (studing film as literature rather than the practical business of making film).
I asked them what their plans were after they graduated and almost all of them said "go back, get my masters and then try and get a job lecturing".
Well it doesn't take a genius to figure out that unless there will be an exponential growth of students interested in studying film every 5 years or so that this is a pyramid that will collapse very quickly.
I really wonder if it's not true today anymore, that college isn't for the liberal arts and is merely a career training endeavor.
In fact I'd argue the opposite: that college bound students and their parents have the wrong expectation that going to college is merely a job preparation strategy.
This may be culturally specific to English-based colleges, but often for a US-based 4-year degree, you spend half your time literally learning the same stuff as all other students, regardless of which degree everyone is trying to get. And then, even when you are in your final year and taking more specialized classes, they are still integrated with all sorts of knowledge from across the board.
Some of my favorite memories from college were things like that Anime appreciation film class, a stage acting class, and a couple singing classes. And in the end I got a degree unrelated to my current profession.
Let's stop trying to turn the liberal arts into something it's not, a trade school.
Then you're going to have to figure out how to make your liberal arts a crapload cheaper. "Follow your bliss" and "spend $200,000 on school for vocational training" are two great tastes that go terribly together.
The issue I think is that the perception in the past was that studying a "liberal arts" type degree would make you part of the educated elite which on it's own had value in terms of job seeking.
Also I think people who did these kind of courses were more likely to come from richer backgrounds and therefor have better connections for gaining employment.
There is a big difference between the UK and the US in that when you do a degree in the UK it is all focused on one area. You usually get very few options to study anything outside that area and if you do it will be a couple of modules in your final year.
I for one would actually prefer a more US style system although arguably we have the variety for 16-18 year old and call it A levels.
I remember some time ago I was out for a drink with a number of students who were completing a course in film study (studing film as literature rather than the practical business of making film).
I asked them what their plans were after they graduated and almost all of them said "go back, get my masters and then try and get a job lecturing".
Well it doesn't take a genius to figure out that unless there will be an exponential growth of students interested in studying film every 5 years or so that this is a pyramid that will collapse very quickly.