“having a seder at night, morning, or krias shma,etc, are at times when you’re an oness. If you’re working, etc…”
Really? Lechatchali your yotzi your chiyuv of talmud torah with day and night learning. Rav Moshe discusses in a teshuva about the general chiyuv to know all of Torah and that for non-bnei torah they can be yotzi zayn with going through daf yomi.
There is also probably a distinction between a man and a woman since woman do not have a chiyuv talmud torah. Therefore, to get back to the Original Poster’s question, about going for a degree for non-parnassah purposes if you are talking about a woman it’s probably mutar (though I’m not a posek). A man is a bit more complicated.