Comment by benrutter

Philosophy postgrad here, my take is: yeah, sorta, but it's hard to build your own curriculum without expertise, and it's hard to engage with subject matter fully without social discussion of, and guidance through texts.

It's the same as saying "why learn maths at university, it's cheaper just to buy and read the textbooks/papers?". That's kind of true, but I don't think that's effective for most people.