> While I have my issues with the system, many Soviet-controlled countries implemented a two-tier higher education system that solved this by having one tier be focused on practical subjects and the other on theoretical ones.

In Germany, there exist even more tiers for tertiary education:

- vocational training

- universities (academic training)

- Fachhochschule (instutions of tertiary education that offer study programs that is more focused on skills that are needed by industry)

- in some parts of Germany: Berufsakademie: even more applied than Fachhochschule; you absolve half of your tertiary education at a company