One of my main reasons for liking TS2 Uni was it added the young adult life stage, before it there wasn't one, and anything that made their little lives longer was great as far as I was concerned.
I didn't mind it, I always started my new sims at uni, all their kids went, I usually got a house not a dorm and sent siblings together and once seasons came out they did gardening while there and practiced other skills too. I found it a useful time to spend with just the kids getting them ready for their working life.
But TS2 was very different to TS3 and it's open world, going by the trailer this does seem more about the social side than the academic, socially awkward is a perfect trait to add though, not everybody is a party animal, some people actually do go to learn something.
I do like the look of some of the features shown in the broadcast though, the new phones and being able to take a pic with a friend, the idea of being able to rent out the spare room to another sim but not having to control that sim. The new art and science stuff interests me too, I seem to end up with a lot of arty science geeks in my families so I can see uni being helpful there.