Scientific Method is a tool. It doesn't have anything to do with the Universities. In fact, if you understand the method you can use it with or without a piece of paper.
The degrees and universities have been come argument from authority fallacies.
In reality if a University is good all it should indicate is there is a higher probability a student might have been exposed to certain information. That's it.
Yet that can also be bad as it often is today.
However, they use that piece of paper from these universities as though that is what makes a person a scientist.
It isn't. A scientist is someone who uses the scientific method. That doesn't make them any kind of authority as the scientific method doesn't have anything about authority anywhere in it.
If they published their methodology, data, and how others can collect the data then anyone should be able to attempt to replicate and in the process strengthen the theory/hypothesis, or destroy the same.
Some things of course require certain skills, and access to equipment that not just everyone will have access to. These are areas that Universities can still be quite important.
The problem is the Universities are being corrupted so people are getting a sizeable helping of indoctrination served with the rest of the education.