The problem here is the sheer cost of college. Since college is so damn expensive, it creates a lot of risk aversion. You can't flunk a student or take away their scholarship because they'll end up with a lifetime's worth of debt without any degree. That's potentially life ruining. College as a whole is way more risky. The baby boomer idea of using college to explore one's passions becomes untenable when a single year costs 80k.
The paradox here is that while college is extremely expensive, it's also still very much a gateway to white collar, middle class life. So you end up with a lot of students who are forced into college by their parents, who don't really want to be there, and who need decent grades. So yeah, they're not going to study that hard. To avoid this, we need cheaper college, and more routes into the middle class that don't involve college.
The paradox here is that while college is extremely expensive, it's also still very much a gateway to white collar, middle class life. So you end up with a lot of students who are forced into college by their parents, who don't really want to be there, and who need decent grades. So yeah, they're not going to study that hard. To avoid this, we need cheaper college, and more routes into the middle class that don't involve college.