Of course, it's the same guy who previously invented languages :)
Seriously though, I'd like to offer a perspective that will hopefully demonstrate that OP's opinion is not devoid of merit.
I propose that in a perfect world, degrees would not be necessary. Also, grades would not be necessary for the same reason. Putting it in rather simplistic terms, both are something artificial that degrade the passion for knowledge by mixing it with the passion for prestige. They are a crude instrument serving as an external motivator that often comes at the expense of a natural and internal one which exists in everyone. An internal motivator is much better at rendering any difficulties along the path insignificant due to the joy of the pursuit.
Of course, I don't think that abolishing grades and degrees today would be wise. It would be a disaster, as irresponsible as taking taking away very good crutches from a handicapped person. I just hope that with time, the person can be taught to be more passionate about learning to walk than improving his crutches.
I assume this is not going to be a popular opinion because many people are too deeply invested in their academic achievements. Also, I might not be seeing the whole picture so I'm open to criticism.
Yes, there's IS literally a "guy who invented college"...
"An academy is an institution of secondary education or higher learning, research, or honorary membership. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia (...) north of Athens, Greece".
This has been the early prototype for later roman, middle-ages, renaissance and finally modern colleges.
It wasn't the first teacher or even school were children were taught, but it was the first higher learning institution, with organized courses and mostly modern form.
[these academies] are to be distinguished from the Western-style university which is an autonomous organization of scholars that originated in medieval Europe and was adopted in other world regions since the onset of modern times
I only copy/pasted that part to provide the exact dates and location.
Other than that, it's neither a well written article nor very accurate. In any case, the missing part before your quoted text is not "these academies". The article talks about several "ancient higher-learning institutions were developed in many cultures to provide institutional frameworks for scholarly activities". That part of the article is quite sloppy too (mentioning "museums", "scientific institutions" in a lemma referring to antiquity [1]).
Then it goes on to refer to the Academy too, later on, but even so, it undermines its own differentiation, as the Academy was both an "Autonomous organization"(check), and of "scholars" (check).
It didn't follow the full template of how a univerity today is (that starts around the 16th century), but it was most of the way there and is widely regarded as the precursor of the modern university (even the name "academic" is not a coincidence).
Now, my intention of reffering to the Academy was to give an example that the earliest college is something that we got in historical times and we know who created it (contrary to what the parents wrote).
If, as you suggest, we maintain that the first "actual" college was created even later, that serves me even better.
[1] There were museums in antiquity, but extremely few, and of them we know nothing much, and especially not that they operated any schools.
I agree that degrees are overrated as a way of assessing ones ability to fulfill a job, but to claim they're bullshit is pushing it.
In an ideal world degrees would be about learning a subject to a greater depth, without the current mess of every job requiring a degree (any degree), so kids by default go to university and study something they have a vague interest in.
A degree is a fantastic thing for some people, it can reinforce a passion for their field, and in the best cases give them the tools to discover new things for humanity.
Degrees are a stupid metric but they're a metric no less. Sadly people like to mistake them for general qualifications and think an unrelated degree justifies higher pay (although this is a more general problem, not really something any individual company can easily fix).
It's cargo cult thinking, really. It's not about the degree but what the individual degree represents. We like to assign unrelated meanings to it because we like easy answers.
