The university obsession is not unique to US. It's true in India as well. If you are not from the elite institutions, you won't get past any hiring scanners of top tech companies. You'll still get a job, not the best paying one though.
For the record: not to all nations. In Russia, a really cool technical university (Bauman's, PhysTech, some faculitis of MGU) will give you some advantage in the early stages of your IT career, but not that much.
Source: am a dropout of a shitty university, still have no degree. It does not bother HRs, as far as I could see so far.
Also anecdotally I haven't noticed it in Iceland. I've been part of a number of hiring processes here and although the presence or absence of education has of course been a factor, where that education happened has been totally irrelevant.
