Why bother with university?

As we know, the A level results are out today but there are limited university places to go around especially for those who don't get the grades they wanted. These days anyone even thinking about going to university really needs to think very hard before going down this route because at the end of it, most students will leave with debts up to £20,000 or even more.
This is just one heck of a stone around anyone's neck to face a future with and will have repercussions on the rest of their lives. Once they earn a certain amount they will have to start paying it back and it will also mean that they will be unlikely to afford their own home unless they are earning megabucks.
When I worked in the Jobcentre we would get the graduates in about July because they hadn't been able to find a job once they had finished their degrees. The problem with most of them was that they were not at all realistic about their prospects. They expected to get a job with massive wages but they had no work experience at all, not even from a part time job or voluntary work, had a degree in a subject that no employers were interested in and generally had no idea of what they actually wanted to do anyway!
I remember one young man in particular who couldn't get up in the morning to keep a 9am interview appointment with me to make a claim for Jobseeker's Allowance, and when he did arrive late, he looked as though he had fallen out of bed and into the Jobcentre. He wasn't articulate at all and had a degree in history. When I asked him what he wanted to do with the rest of his life he told me he had no idea. Then I asked him if he was interested in using his degree and knowledge of history in his future employment, perhaps teaching or maybe even a curator of a museum, but he said he didn't want to do anything like that.
By this time I was beginning to lose the will to live so I asked him why on earth he had gone to university to read history in the first place. He told me he thought it was a good idea and it pleased his parents. He told me they had paid for everything while he was at university and they were supporting him now and he didn't really want to go to work!
This is where I really had to put my foot down. I pointed out that if he was claiming Jobseeker's Allowance he was expected to look for a minimum of three jobs every week and provide us with the details of the employers as we didn't pay people 'pocket money'. He thought for a few minutes then decided to withdraw his claim saying he didn't want to work and his parents would support him, then he left.
I certainly know what I would have done if he'd been my offspring and supporting him in a life of idleness wouldn't have come into it! All I can say is, he took up a university place that someone who could have really used the opportunity to the advantage of others but didn't quite get the grades, could have taken instead of him.