4 ms·

I can't believe this is still a middle class meme, some ideas die hard. Universities have been sliding downhill for a long time and they know why because they

• jacques_chester 8y ago
  I didn't say anything about formal education or credentialling. The original and still key purpose of universities is to gather academics together. Teaching was a by-product of that origin. Would-be students flocked to the cities where scholars had clustered and eventually, folks started to organise. The word "university" means "of one", or "guild", or "group". That reflects its origin as a club for academics. Literally people whose reason for being at university is to be in a club of people focusing on these sorts of questions consistently. The closest alternative are the many and various think-tanks, most of which are intertwined with academia.