I'm almost positive that without the degree in physics he never would have been qualified to work in the patent office, nor would he have been equipped to study electromagnetism at the necessary level to formulate the special theory of relativity. I am positive that he would not have become acquainted with the mathematical formalism necessary for the development of general relativity.

That said, it's entirely beside the point. I have seen no argument that supports the idea that a university education today is somehow less educating than one 100 years ago. In fact, the arguments that have been presented seem to be suggesting that a college education of any kind intrinsically inhibits learning; a notion which is completely absurd when you realize that most major contributions to any technical field come from professionals who obtained their education in the form of a university degree.

I don't know what college you attend(ed), but I have yet to have an instructor who doesn't emphasize critical thinking and questioning of what is taught.

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Also, you keep quoting Einstein, who went to university, attained a degree, and then became a professor after spending a few years working in a patent office.

India, Canada, the Philippines, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, and the Netherlands are just a few others. Wikipedia has a much larger list, but the point is that you're simply wrong. Many nations have done perfectly fine with multiple official languages. Moreover, even in nations that have only a single official language, it is not devastating for there to be a sizable portion of the population that speaks an alternative.

Point of Order: Not one nation has survived as a multiculture.

Switzerland has four national languages and seems to be doing fine. They also seem to have no cultural problems, despite distinct cultural disparities between regions tied to neighboring nations such as Italy or France.