“Maybe because some parents want their children to be smart?”
Actually, why couldn’t a university have individual classes in the technical subjects. No need to have a “department” to do that.
In high school in NYS Regents program we HAD to take 3 years of a language (Latin, Spanish, or French), and 3 years of Math (algebra, geometry, and trig and/or calculus), and 3 years of Science (general, biology, and chemistry), and 3 years of History.
I hated it, but appreciated it for decades after.