Pace of work, expectations. I got a 2.ii. 79-82 and have worked non-stop including in academia. It's impossible to progress in academia beyond the trivial level without a PhD now. My dad was a full tenured head of department and professor with no PhD. (UK Professor, not US 'any teacher is a professor') -that was just becoming less likely. Now? its functionally impossible unless you have somebody magic like Musk doing a side-gig.
Your past is un-erasable. My time in Uni included many things I leave behind me. I can name-drop the UK comic who could have been "sent down" for keeping a York University duck in a cardboard box under his bed, which is luckily (for him) undocumented. Animal cruelty? he'd be in deep shit with the BBC. Or the politician's son arrested for minor dope offenses. Now? Its on tiktok forever. You really cannot progress in some fields (politics) if you enjoy university as much as I did.
My Uni experience was fully funded by the state. The state did not demand repayment, and arts was fine. Have fun. Now? the likelihood of a debt you can't service for a poor choice of subject is very real.
Truly it's NOT the same course. My field, comp sci, only existed as a part degree at the start of my course and was full degree by the end, we had 10 students and tutorials were 2-to-1 (2 students to one lecturer) and we complained it wasn't the oxbridge experience of 1-to-1. It's simply not comparable to the experience of learning in a modern university. The complexity of the field was tiny by comparison.
Eng lit was somewhat the same, still stuck in "modern means 17thC onwards but stops at 1871" but now, eng lit comes with trigger warnings. You can't read half the canon because it's racist or classist or sexist.
Also, the gigs were better. But I digress..
Some of it was "we were the top 10%" so it was already ordained we'd be future leaders. Now, 75% of the age group go to uni, and it means less for probably more work.
I respect any modern student. I would seriously doubt I would do well in a modern university context.
yes, much of the drink/drugs/partaaaaty was the same. And learning to cook. I would argue we paid less % of our stipend as rent, significantly less. I survived 3 years on unemployment benefits including having my rent paid over summer. I know students now who are functionally homeless and live in squalor out of a car and eat ramen every day.
TL;DR the expectations on the modern cohort ARE higher than most postwar 1950s/1960s/1970s graduates. Perhaps the modern cohort is closer to the post WW1 who had to live with not having fought and died, and had very high expectations placed on them (especially women)