To what degree does a university help someone's career when they graduate?

An university can act as a guide and mentor to harness your true potential and hone your skills. They shall provide you with the tools necessary to face the real world challenges of the concepts learned by you. A good university can provide you with the best tools and teachers to do the same.Technically the whole University is like a practice arena to sharpen your skills and achieve experience and gain exposure. A good University will assist you choosing the right career path or else build one for yourself.

We in India treat Universities as Job Vendors. An IIT would take you places, IIM degrees are for top placements. Campus placements and recruitment are kind of synonymous with the stature of the University or the institution. But the skewed ratios are not highlighted. The toppers are good at concepts and have a clear goal and focus. The whole media glorifies salary packages but never shows the actual efforts of the guy behind it.

Its a well known fact that if your skills are good and matches an employers requirements they shall hire you at your price. But the focus should be on skill development whereas bulk of the crowd in Universities only want the latter half of the deal without fulfilling their part.

Well the real question should be how the skill set achieved during the course of the program helps you to be job ready. If the student is focused on to doing something, there is no stopping. Jobs are available in plenty if you are skilled but in India only 15% graduated [Refer CII studies] are job ready. Hence if the student is focused on a goal to improve skills then they can utilize the university education properly and build a successful career.

Success is not what you get at a particular juncture. It is the end product of the transformation brought inside you.