I should say, given some of my earlier remarks, that I've nothing against University education, in the right subjects (I spent 10 years in academia myself, and loved most of it). Some professions really do need a long education in facts and how-to-think - law, medicine etc. Some less practical subjects are nonetheless helpful to society, and also require long study - history, art, (and perhaps my own subject archeaology, although that also has a strongly practical arm and some people can have a very good natural aptitude for the practical side).
Other subjects are better taught by more practical tuition - learning 'on the job' as an apprentice. Yet other subjects fall inbetween, it's complicated.
I'd prefer there to be fewer university places, and for them to be state funded, so that the only bar to jump is actually being intelligent enough to benefit.
In fact, to trot out something I've trotted out many times before, I'd like to see a sort of National Service Gap Year - not military, but a year in which young people receive some basic income in return for doing a basic job in a field of their choosing. I think it could help a lot of people work out if they really doo want to do that job, understand what it's like at the bottom of a profession, maybe find that they really much prefer to do something they never realised they would like. Then, only after that, they can decide to apply to university, or take up an apprenticeship, or vocational training at a good old polytechnic....