Universities need the guts to break this Faustian pact with research | Simon Jenkins

As long as university academics claim privileged public sector status, the agony of their bondage to the state will continue

British universities have become spineless lackeys of central government, lickspittles at the trough of subsidy. They plead they are a "golden investment" in the nation's future, yet they cry "higher purpose" when this claim is challenged. Those who went to university, including captains of industry, go along with this confidence trick to justify the advantage they...