The university serves, in no small part, as a mating market, amidst a sea of bullshit subjects and bullshit research preparing students for bullshit careers. The forming of couples who go on to create families might be one of the few real offerings of academia. This was a job done by churches in the past, and done by them today in conservative circles. For liberal and non-religious types, the university serves this role.
There are other parallels too. The dicates of academic figures with high credentials are swallowed without question, the way proclamations of religious heads are. The ostracization of dissidents, the flow of money, etc, bear church-like features as well.