The findings are bollocks
What the industry wants is programmers, not Computer Scientists. I've been in the industry 30 years and don't think I've really done much Computer Science per se.
Good programmers will be drawn to programming no matter whether the cool kids at school think they are nerdy or not.
Good programmers will also be drawn to programming whether or not it is taught at school. Good programmers need to be resourceful and if they have to be spoon fed by teachers they will likely be crap programmers. Give me the kid who taught himself to write Visual Basic over the kid who only knows what was downloaded into him by formal education.
Joining this industry is a commitment to life-long learning. If you can't teach yourself, then give up now.
As for "1) Chicken & Egg: Employers want experienced staff.", that's not entirely true. Employers do indeed want experienced staff, but it is not a chicken and egg problem. Now, more than ever before, students have opportunities to flex their programming muscles before they graduate.
Internships abound. There are also thousands of open source projects where a student can get stuck in and learn something new and actually contribute. And prove themselves.
Give me a "B" graduate with an interesting bunch of projects on github over an "A+" graduate who only focused on their coursework.