HEINRICHS: Parents are asking: Should my kid go to university?

Gerald Heinrichs is a lawyer in Regina, Saskatchewan In 2022, NBC ran a news story reporting 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 had fallen drastically — to 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. Fortune reported that, "More than a third of all [college] graduates now say their degree was a 'waste of money'." The story said "This frustration is especially pronounced among Gen Z, with 51% expressing remorse".According to many Canadians, 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 they cannot be saved..This university problem isn't just in Canada and the US. In 2024, 600 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 there are serious problems in universities. Some even claim that universities today are the best ever. Others admit there are problems but contend that university faculties like 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.Adding to this, some employers are moving away from requiring university degrees in hiring. In March 2024 the University Herald reported 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 and shorter duration plus they have better job prospects, and 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. And, moreover, that they offer them at 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.

HEINRICHS: Parents are asking: Should my kid go to university?

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