In the UK polytechnics used to fulfill this role and they did it well as long as the sector was well funded. Once the cost accountancy rot set-in under Thatcher every higher education institution became desperate to be re-classified as a university for fear of losing custom from the new breed of students with loans to spend. As I said, once you tie education to the job market the ideal is lost and there is no place in the world for Literature, Philosophy, Sociology, History etc.