Also, much of the principles of software development are covered in the first two years of a degree. In the UK, at least.
That wasn't my experience when recruiting, too many universities were teaching people about vast lists of detail relating to a specific technology (for example C++ and the standard Template Library and its various extensions) without any discussion of the inherent defects in those technologies (eg the badly broken type system of C++, where it is not in general possible to constrain the type of the RValue by a a pointer LValue), of programming issues that are essentially technology-independent (for example modularity, error management, ergonomic impact of code design on end-users), fundamental aspects of computer science theory (for example recursive function theory, the halting problem, type theory), or even efficient development methods (eg the needs for unit testing, for version control, for configuration management, and for release management). Maybe things have improved since then, or maybe not.
I saw many degrees that I thought worthless and/or irrelevant so I am not surprised. Also the degrees I have done have been module based and I actively chose the theoreticals of software development (including database theory even though I had no intent of being a DBA and have yet to be one). Many chose easier and fun modules. I stupidly wanted to get value in my education beyond the certificate. Why stupidly? Because it was hard work. (Right choice in my opinion.)
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!