A graduate I met had an English degree, a masters and a PGCE. She was struggling to get a teaching post, I suggested a couple of ideas that may have helped her. She said “was you a teacher”. I despair.
My DiL has a degree and Masters but was very confused when I complained about people on the BBC using adverbs as adjectives. She said she had never been taught grammar at school. How on earth.could this happen? Surely to use language effectively educationalist would realise the building blocks of a language are needed to be understood? I lived in The Netherlands and the Dutch speak much better English than many native English people these days.
Sadly, the A'Level system is so so narrow- and the only requirement to go to University, is to have a C at GCSE, and then never study English again, unless you choose A'Level English, which the vast majority does not.
Students normally take 4 AS Levels in Year 12, and 3 A'Levels for year 13. Only a tiny minority takes English at A'Level, and when they do, it is mostly litterature.