Perhaps the answer is not to call them degrees. But compare the old DipHE initiative of 25 years ago. No-one took them seriously. And in part, it was because they were called diplomas, and not degrees. Degrees have a cachet that diplomas do not.

The same is true of Universities. In that same 25 year period, more and more institutions have become universities. But calling them universities doesn't make them ones. It's interesting that the University for Industry has subtly changed its name, first to UfI, then learndirect. In a message-conscious age, it seemed that University for Industry was giving the wrong message.

Universities have another function. For whatever the social agenda, the reality is that universities are a kind of halfway house between childhood and adulthood, a world of quasi-independence and social experiment, a place to share ideas & participate in a community of learning.