In many countries they have figured out that equal opportunities in access to higher education are a crucial thing to have. That's why my M.Sc. cost me grand total of 5000 EUR over 5 years.
>and the fact that they teach so little useful skills
I wonder why you feel this way. Can you elaborate on that? Do you think university is obsolete?
Only speaking from my experience in the US but many CS or IS graduates do not have the real world knowledge to excel in a job squarely in their field. They learn 90% of what they actually need on the job.
My uni's CS degree required a ton of math that is irrelevant to 90+ % of development jobs, lots of language and liberal arts classes that are also useless in the field, etc, etc...
at least here, uni is a total money grab. very expensive, not a whole lot of practical knowledge imparted.