Let’s just be real: that university degree graduate students are grinding for does not have the same value anymore it once had when I went to film school. I\u2019ve been in the industry, and my biggest wins weren’t about the degrees; they were secured by applied expertise\u2014mastering problems on set and managing global film productions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Across the EU, the economic shield of a degree is failing. The employment gap protecting graduates is tragically blurring across Europe. This massive erosion of value is fueled by two threats. One is overwhelming credential inflation:“Credential inflation is largely supply driven, not demand driven; i.e. it is driven by the expansion of schooling, like a government printing more paper money; not from demand of the economy for an increasingly educated labor force.” <\/em>(Collins, 2011)“The massive erosion of value is the result of overwhelming credential inflation and a shrinking student pool due to the demographic drop.”<\/em> (McKinsey, 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\nExternal pressures also meet internal failures: the depersonalisation of teaching. If universities don’t fix this now, they are canceling their own future:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Great Squeeze\u2014Why Your Degree Is Just a Prerequisite<\/h2>\n\n\n\n The data doesn’t lie, but it\u2019s easy to misread. A degree still retains value as a core labor market prerequisite, but its historical power is collapsing. The employment rate for young EU graduates is barely higher than for those with vocational training. According to Eurostats “the EU employment rate for recent graduates aged 20-34 in the EU was 82.3%. The employment rate of recent graduates from medium vocational education in the EU was 80.0% in 2024.”<\/em> – a difference of a mere 2.3% percentage points.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis tiny margin is quickly destroyed by the sheer price and effort required to get that degree. This is the crisis of credential inflation at its core. Employers demand degrees for roles that never needed them before, simply because they can. This forces graduates into a low-value “bumping down” situation: you pay tuition fees and still get pushed into generic roles that use few of your specialized skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sociologists Tomlinson and Watermeyer observe: “As the credentials inflate within society their original value, and exclusionary effect, consequently declines… [consequently] the pressure escalates to achieve more and better credentials to signal the demands of increasingly discriminate labour market gate-keepers” <\/em>(Tomlinson & Watermeyer, 2022). <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe economic result is that the university is selling a costly prerequisite rather than a valued degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Betrayal of the Expert and the AI Question<\/h2>\n\n\n\n The biggest failure happens inside the university. The low market value of a degree is a direct result of the devalued expertise within the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Administrator Trap<\/h3>\n\n\n\n The popular “administrator” model is sold as student-centered and flexible, but its function is often cheap efficiency. The veteran academic and former professional working in the relevant industry sector\u2014the one with decades of specialized, real-world experience\u2014is reduced to an “administrator” managing rubrics and group chat participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lampert et al found that teachers are “increasingly overworked ‘all-rounders’ and front-line workers, having to be everything from social workers, proxy parents to administrators and managers”<\/em>. This managerial workload directly conflicts with the expert’s professional identity. Team based working models can be “perceived not only as counter-cultural, but also challenging in the way it can confront established academics’ self-understandings … Characterised by ‘loss of expertise”<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMassification, Managerial Models and loss of Expertise<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Massification is the structural move toward larger student bodies which created a total logistical crisis for universities. This is where models like Team-Based Working (TBW) come in. TBW is not implemented for groundbreaking teaching; it is a managerial hack used to cope with student volume and budget cuts. Just as hot-desking depersonalises the workplace, creating the feeling that a teacher is merely an asset, just like a piece of office furniture. The consequences of this philosophy, if it even qualifies for one, are severe:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In general, massification has led to broad concerns about the dilution of knowledge creation and the quality and type of knowledge being produced”<\/em> (Hornsby & Osman, 2014). <\/p>\n\n\n\nTBW is the administrative mechanism that enacts this dilution, forcing experts into managerial roles just to process the sheer number of students quickly and efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why Pay When Gemini Has the Notes?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n This leads to the non-negotiable question: If the teacher is just organising information, why should anyone pay for a degree when on-the-job training, Gemini or ChatGPT can do that task better and faster? I used Gemini to research and help me spell-check this article – AI has become my personal assistant. AI will undoubtedly become the superior content administrator:“AI-driven virtual assistants and chatbots will handle routine tasks, such as scheduling meetings, answering frequently asked questions, and transcribing conversations\u2026 Businesses that want to attract and retain Gen Z talent need to offer flexible, tech-savvy communication tools that align with their preferences.”<\/em> (Mollick, 2024, as cited in nuacom, 2023)The only way a university can justify its price is to deliver something AI cannot: deep, specialized expertise and genuine human connection. Without the human expert, the degree becomes an obsolete service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Fight for Personal Value<\/h2>\n\n\n\n We see the structural reality: the demographic drop across the EU is forcing universities to fight for every student. TBW is deployed to gain efficiency, turning teachers into administrators, AI and on-the-job training further lower student intake. This intense competition often pressures educationalists and teachers to lower standards in favour of generic, “marketable” programs. This race to the bottom must stop. The future of higher education lies in a dramatic re-personalization of the learning experience. This means committing to the expert mentor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Restoring the Master Coach<\/h3>\n\n\n\n The teacher must transition from a low-value “administrator” to the high-value Master Coach. This is about actively mentoring students through complex, non-routine challenges. The Master Coach is the one who uses decades of experience to design assignments, forcing students to truly “Make A Difference” (MAD), grounding their soft skills in in-depth expertise. The student is paying for the experts knowledge and wisdom, as well as the ethical context of the profession explored in this relationship. People crave to be taught by those who have achieved mastery. They don’t want to be taught by an AI or glorified adminstrator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Undeniable Human Value<\/h3>\n\n\n\n The only way to create true, sustainable value is through genuine, relational re-personalization. This is because learning is fundamentally a human exchange, not a transaction. As educational researchers note: “The relation between mentor and mentee is personal. The learning that we focus on in relation to mentorship takes place in social interaction between mentee and mentor”<\/em> (Taylor & Francis Online, 2017).<\/p>\n\n\n\nUniversities need to change course and restore the Expert Mentor\u2014the Master Coach\u2014to student centred learning. By embracing this model, universities can:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nFuture-proof the degree, <\/strong>ensuring it remains an investment in competence, not just a costly entry pass.<\/li>\n\n\n\nJustify their price b<\/strong>y delivering unique, non-scalable wisdom.<\/li>\n\n\n\nRebuild authentic trust <\/strong>with students who crave genuine connection and experiences.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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