ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter considers the place and purpose of higher education in the twenty-first century in light of ethical concerns discussed by Wendell Berry in Home Economics (1987) and other works, and social and political challenges raised by David Goodhart, especially in The Road to Somewhere (2017). The chapter presents a substantial critique against the instrumentalisation of the university for professional or economic purposes, offering empirical evidence that, in some cases, higher education is developing in a direction which is the opposite of a refuge of truth and truthfulness.
