To be quite honest I am always rather 
about the minimal 'contact time' British universities give their now fee-paying students. Why don't they complain?
I am also sometimes a bit at work as a HCP when degree qualified colleagues (it became a degree 10 or so years ago) imply they have had more training than me as I did a 2 1/4 year Diploma BUT mine was 9-5, 5 days a week, 45 weeks a year. OK, half of the time was 'pract(ical)' actually doing and learning the 'hands-on' in a clinical setting but my degree qualified colleagues speak of 8 or so contact hours a week! OK, I also concede that their degrees contain rather more 'padding' than my course which was more nitty-gritty, thus they have to go and spend ages trawling the internet for essay material so yes, the style of the training has changed but even so, 8 hours a week?? Most also did a part time job in 'office hours'.
Seeing as I know my what is essentially practical and vocational career is now a degree, I know that there are hundreds of similar lines of study which are also now degree courses which maybe shouldn't be but hey, that's the way it is, so maybe I'd differentiate those courses away from the more trad. courses where hours of library-bound contemplation and genuine original thought still is required and say, how about a course where you're there 45 weeks a year with all your contact time packed in accordingly?
Wouldn't you say you'd be able to do most undergrad degrees in 1 1/2 years that way? And save a fortune on living expenses during that time? Many might say that university is about more than just getting a degree but our government is evidently not interested in that facet, and, let's face it, how many of us really think that extended 'dreaming spires' time is worth a £50k debt? That's almost imprudent! FWIW I also think that whilst right now, mortgage companies won't be looking at student debt as a barrier to lending, I'd bet anything that'll change, just as soon as the wind changes direction!