I think there are some professions where a degree is very important for example: I would feel rather nervous if my Doctor never went to medical school (basically professions that deal with the well being of others), but then there are things that I don't think you need to learn at University, such as, Business, Computer Science, Art, English etc basically knowledge and skills you can teach yourself with research, time and community support. Then there are also professions I think that would benefit from a bit of change in education system such as legal profession where I think you do need theoretical knowledge and structure but (this is based on my own experience) it should happen whilst you are working/doing your articles instead of wasting years beforehand as it helps to have some real business context for the theoretical knowledge.

I hope this slightly different view from other comments will add to the greater discussion here! Thank you for bringing it up :)