In my opinion, a university education should only be about intellectual curiosity with the greatest research minds. If you are only interested in the practical aspects of programming, I don't think that a university fits your needs.

To extend this thought, I also believe that someone majoring in any field--from English to art history--should be able to become professional programmers. I feel that industry is trying to make universities technical schools, when they have an academic focus.

That is not to say that I don't agree with some of the previous posters. We do need more training centers for people with practical inclinations.

I feel that the problem with this whole system is that people are automatically expected to go to university if they did well in high school. If not they will violate a social norm, and shame their parents. There should be practical schooling options for students that are also hard and prestigious.