I'm old school/uni. When I got to university and gained my degree late '70's, I was therefore one of the top 10% of the population. In those days to get a good job you needed both qualifications and experience, and it was usually impossible to gain both simultaneously. A degree proved you had brains and could learn, experience showed you knew how to apply both.
My holiday job (needed to backfill my overdraft, spent mainly on beer rather than books) gave me a job after I left uni - and my (physics/science) degree was not actually a requirement for it (I had already proved myself). My tutor despaired, but I did scrape though my degree by ability rather than hard work and diligent application.
Once I had both experience and degree, doors were open, and I had the ability to make the most of whatever job and level I entered and could prove my worth and ability. I've now retired after starting my electronics/hardware/software/IT/security career before the advent of the IBM PC.
Nowadays if student fails, it is the fault of the course/teachers. Everyman and his dog now has the right to go to uni, whether they have the ability, application or intelligence for it.
Those of my friends and collegues who weren't academic did the apprentice/experience/vocational training route, which is no longer available as everything is now a uni. We all succeeded in our own ways, to the best of our abilities, and made the most of what we had.
After uni I did a Computer Studies evening class A level, got an A and I and another student working in IT taught the teacher and updated them as the syllabus was already (in the '80s) 2 years behind the industry. Programming was self-taught (Basic, Fortran, machine code). An OCD desire to refuse to let a piece of ironmongery beat me as I tried to bend it to my will stood me in good stead (and still keeps me amused).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
