I'm not sure what country you are referring to, but from my experience getting into a decent university on a satisfactory course one should at least have some good grades and a decent character. I try not to be biased, but the American system seems to be slightly more acceptable to people with lower qualifications or less motivation.
Obviously, if this were to be planned one would need criteria having to be met (for example one can only be paid for edits on articles from ones field of study).
"decent" being the operative word there. There are many unis that I wouldn't describe as "decent". My experience is with UK unis, but I think the same applies to varying degrees wherever you go (except possibly China, from what I hear).