I am far from an expert on either the UK's educational system or the need (actual or perceived) for university graduates there, but there seems to have been an inflation of what is considered minimum educational requirements for many occupations in the US in recent years. For example, office clerks (if they had formal training at all) once went to a business school for a year or so - now they are expected to have a four-year degree in secretarial science. Auto mechanics must have, at a minimum, a two-year degree rather than leaving school, going to work, and learning on the job. Occupational Therapy (my wife's profession) now requires a Master's degree rather than a Bachelors to start.

Granted that this results in a delay in people entering the job market, and thus a decrease in the levels of unemployment ("I'm not unemployed, I'm in school.") and an increase in the jobs available for teachers and educational bureaucrats, but it also results in a decrease in the numbers earning and paying taxes rather than being supported by someone else.