> The purpose of research universities is to engage in scientific research, not to educate people. I take issue with a couple things in that sentence. That is

> The purpose of research universities is to engage in scientific research, not to educate people. I take issue with a couple things in that sentence. That is the goal of a small number of private research universities. I don't know of any public research universities, even the highest ranking, that don't dedicate significant resources to undergraduate education. The second thing is that the mission of Harvard et al is primarily scholarship (in any field) and graduate education, not just scientific research. These are minor points relative to your comment but I don't want the public to believe all research universities exist to do only scientific research.