By Gerald Heinrichs

A 2022 NBC story reported that “an alarming number of people are rejecting college.” The US network stated there was a dramatic decline in high school students choosing to go to college. In past years, as many as 70% of high school students enrolled in college, but that number has fallen drastically, as low as 39% in Idaho. The story discussed a “widespread and fast-growing skepticism about the value of a degree.”

Fortune.com gave some further explanation in an April 2025 article, stating, “More than a third of all [college] graduates now say their degree was a ‘waste of money’… This frustration is especially pronounced among Gen Z, with 51% expressing remorse.”

According to many Canadians, the university’s tattered reputation is no mystery at all. The  National Post covered this issue in a 2024 editorial entitled “Our Rotten Rotting Universities.” In that article, Dr. Jordan Peterson said that universities have been taken over by “poseurs and charlatans of the permissive, infantilizing, accusatory mob.” He claims that the traditional education values of discipline, truth, and intelligence have been “disdainfully dismissed by the parasitical invaders.” Peterson claims that universities are so broken that they cannot be saved.

This university problem isn’t just in Canada and the US. In 2024, six hundred British scholars signed a letter to the country’s education secretary denouncing the country’s university environment of censorship and cancel culture. The letter stated, “Hundreds of academics and students have been hounded, censured, silenced or even sacked over the last 20 years for expression of legal opinions.”

 There are dozens of books, articles and interviews discussing this so-called rot in universities. One of the most recent is Matt Goodwin’s book, Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them. One of the most acclaimed books is by James Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose, entitled Cynical Theories: How Universities Made Everything About Race, Gender and Identity.

Perhaps the loudest statement on this issue, though, came from US President Donald Trump. In 2024 Trump declared that US colleges had become “dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics.” 

On the other hand, many Canadians downplay or deny that there are serious problems in universities. Some even claim that universities today are the best they have ever been. Others admit there are problems, but contend that university faculties such as business, engineering, and science are less broken than other faculties, like education and humanities. 

But parents have many reasons to be concerned about what is being dished out as higher education to their children. Is a university campus a good place to be? As the saying goes: If you hang out with chickens, you’re going to start to cluck.

Furthermore, some employers are shifting away from requiring university degrees in their hiring processes. In March 2024, a University Herald report said that the career websites Indeed and LinkedIn have seen an increase in “skills-based job posts” and a decrease in “formal education requirements.” And, in Canada’s 2025 election, the Conservative Party said it would “eliminate university degree requirements for most federal public service roles to hire for skill, not credentials.”

These university problems are not lost on Canada’s technical colleges. For example, Skilled Trades College of Canada proudly advertises that, compared to university, their diplomas are cheaper, have a shorter duration, and offer better job prospects, as well as higher pay.

Meanwhile, online schools like Peterson Academy advertise that they offer classic liberal arts courses, which, they contend, have been largely abandoned by today’s universities. Moreover, they offer them at a much lower cost than university tuition.

The new school year begins in September, and families are making big decisions. Is university a worthwhile choice? That’s a fair question for everyone to ask.

 Gerald Heinrichs is a lawyer in Regina, Saskatchewan.