Life Changing or Career Building?

This is a good question of how we percieve higher education. Some beleive like myself that it readys you and gives you a better understanding of the caeer you are heading toward. My friend on the other hand does not agree with wasting time on going to uni. His reasons for this are that if you are passionate and talented enough then you should get the job anyway.
I would love to have his confidence but I only think that he is that confident because he is actually really tallented in art and computers.
So when we consider the views of some of the companies as it says here:
"Some game companies want highly trained graduate artists and programmers. Some claim they really prefer creative individuals with a good Liberal Arts background."
This quote shows companies with both views, but to have a whole selection of one without the other we would be in big trouble. The simple way to even this out is to have a pick of both highly trained graduate artists and programmers with that of the creative individuals with a good liberal arts background. Doesnt take a genious to realise you just need a mix of both.
The companys must realise that there are alot of up and coming artists and programmers that have never taken higher education, but instead have taken other career paths but have decided to follow their dreams. These people must be taken as seriously as any graduate student with a degree or I may as well tell my friend that he may as well give up hope.
With this open minded look at employee's games companys must watch out for those who may sneak in and not actually be of any use. But dont think I mean the people without the degree as those with may not work well in real life situations. There is risk with both and that is why it is better to get a mix of each.
In conclusion I come to beleive that the adverts you see are there as a line for the academic standard of which that company expects. But I also think that say someone with that level of work but no actual education to show should be able to send pieces of their work as application for an interview into a job with that particular games company.
So if we look at it that way we see that it is possible for it to be both a life changing experience and be beneficial to take higher education for career building purposes, making them highly qualified for the companys in question.
Another point of which I would put on the students is as what has happened to our second year students they were not just sticking to work on games art when they were in their firtst year.
I chose this course as I had not heard of such specifiically based subject such as this that envolved games. This gives in my oppinion all on our course a much higher standing than that of a student on a more varied course.
The question is do companys see it that way or do they want someone of an all round stature.
I think it would be too dificult to give an exact answer to this but from the points I have looked at you can see that their must be some form of balance between both sides.