Much as I have problems with the academy (being a paid up member), I think it is worth considering that a world without universities would be infinitely poorer, and, with all of their flaws, I am glad they are there -- at their best as a possible counterpoint to much of everything else. They can provide a space for people to pause and reflect on the world around them -- though many forces internal and external naturally hate the prospect of such spaces. Who would willingly among the powers that be support the creation of a critical, thinking mass population? They begrudge that part, so that they can get the things they really want. So universities are usually betrayed (as Amos says) into factories of information processing.

Still, they are a curious anachronism -- why a medieval religious institution crossed with humanism should have staggered into the 21st century is strange. The moment when they sold much of their souls was when the Germans invented the research university (synthetic chemicals, weapons) in the late 19th century. We have been struggling with this ever since.

yours, Peter T.