The college bubble is popping. Enrollment is down 15% from its 2010 peak. My intuition is that the bigger state schools will be well insulated financially, but smaller independent colleges will have a bloodbath.
Fewer colleges mean:
1) People out of jobs. Teachers will lose their main income and the remaining colleges will have no incentive to increase their payroll because where are they gonna go?
2) Getting into a college will be even more competitive. As companies will still look for people with degrees, colleges can charge even more and candidates to study there will have less choices.
This will only change when NOT studying at a college has no impact in your future income. Or the impact is lesser than today.
For jobs that require a college degree, but the major subject of study doesn't matter, that is what they are using it for.
A High School diploma used to mean a lot more, when education was compulsory only to 8th grade. A modern high school diploma pretty much just certifies that you showed up, and the only people who don't have one are people who dropped out.
It’ll never happen. They need low effort filters.
It’s hard to defend generic standardized tests. (Whereas ASVAB is ok.)
That's true in specialized career paths. A Doctor, a pharmacist and lawyers are good examples. Don't ditch the degree requirement for those.
However I've seen "offices" jobs where they only require people that can read, write, have basic MS Office skills and specially FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS. You can learn that in high school.
But companies require Degrees for those jobs and it's the most idiotic thing I can think because:
a) Companies are downsizing the pool of potential candidates and, b) People with degrees (Some of them at least) will feel that job is not fulfilling. They will leave for better opportunities.
For those jobs, just learning on the fly will suffice.