More people have degrees in Europe as it does not cost money. Also, the standard of education dropped and the exams are easier to pass.
I know from experience that a B.Sc. in Computer Science at the Technical University of Munich (considered a very good school) was harder to get before 2008 than it is now.
In the killer-subjects like discrete mathematics, theoretical computer science and algorithms we had failing-rates of 80%.
I can image the German government asked for "more CS grads" and after this the professors started to introduce one problem in each exam that anyone could pass who practised a bit and / or wasn't entirely stupid. The other two to three problems were still on a high level, and if you wanted a top-grade, you still had to solve those. As a result the failing-rate for the mentioned killer-subjects dropped from 80% to 20-30%.
I know from experience that a B.Sc. in Computer Science at the Technical University of Munich (considered a very good school) was harder to get before 2008 than it is now.
In the killer-subjects like discrete mathematics, theoretical computer science and algorithms we had failing-rates of 80%.
I can image the German government asked for "more CS grads" and after this the professors started to introduce one problem in each exam that anyone could pass who practised a bit and / or wasn't entirely stupid. The other two to three problems were still on a high level, and if you wanted a top-grade, you still had to solve those. As a result the failing-rate for the mentioned killer-subjects dropped from 80% to 20-30%.