It is part of the liberal mistaken belief that EVERYONE must go to college.
It has nothing to do with "mistaken beliefs".
It is about indoctrination.
The Left has found that Socialist Indoctrination from Head Start through High School doesn't produce a high enough percentage of brain-dead liberals.
They get their biggest indoctrination ROI in college; where they can get the students away from the parents' influence.
That is why the Left demands that everyone go to college; to turn all the students into brain-dead automatons (on the tax-payers' dime, of course).