The *older generation*?
I think it might be more of a case that the government schools and media push the necessity of college.
The student may have parents who tell them honestly to go to a community college and get a trade certification. The student, however, has been indoctrinated and can declare themselves emancipated from their parents and then qualify for a non-dischargable student loan from the government.
The parents may preach until they are blue in the face about the merits of individualism, but the student is inculcated with collectivism and is psychologically coerced to disregard the parents in favor of their peer group and the indoctrinators.
It is the government totality that has created this situation, which they can then exploit to their own ends of gaining and retaining power. Take a look at the spokesmen for the government totality. There is a large cadre of favored 20-somethings who have their position because of connections and family influence/money. They can speak authoritatively to their peers. The visible layer above them is in their 30s, still capable of appealing to youth on their own level.
Sure, some parents have been inculcated along with their children, because to not be on the same page means endless conflict not only in the home, but for the child in the lower echelons of government education. Some conservative parents are successful in guiding their children, but not all.
To me, the article illustrates the futility of it all. The girl earned a scientific degree. There were no jobs in her field. In order to collect a small government subsidy, she is required to *work* for them. What is she supposed to do? If everyone becomes a plumber or an electrician or an RN, how long before those fields are saturated and the technical graduates are in a similar situation?
Well, in a civilization, in the urban civilized society of this era, that is indeed the "older generation" which is raising the young, and in this case "exploiting". Our generation has entrapped the young in great shackles of debt, in order to buy a wasteful, desultory, emotionally disabling, morally destructive, and intellectually ruining four, five, six years of "Higher Education".
Too many parents are caught in the still rampant societal delusion that college is a necessity, that college is a good, that college improves, that college is worth the huge cost burden.