There’s an interesting discussion in an article at the Chronicle of Higher Education addressing the question of whether too many students are going to college. Bryan Caplan responds to one of the questions with:

College attendance, in my view, is usually a drain on our economy and society. Encouraging talented people to spend many years in wasteful status contests deprives the economy of millions of man-years of output. If this were really an “investment,” of course, it might be worth it. But I see little connection between the skills that students acquire in college and the skills theyll need later in life.

Bingo! Somebody just hit the nail on the head. What better rationale for a complete rethinking and redefinition of higher education than the above statement. The whole article is worth a read.