>when higher education in the UK was fully-funded by the state the resulting degrees, regardless of the subject(s) studied, were far more valuable in the job market than the more vocational degrees which today saddle students with £50k of debt

When was that, exactly?

Maybe the problem is just that when 1% of the population is educated, they can all be in the top 1%, and when 100% is, they can't all even be above average?