In a searching reflection on the state of modern universities, Simon Haines asks what has become of the institution’s oldest purpose: the cultivation and transmission of humane wisdom. While universities still train professionals, conduct world class research and support vast international enrolments, Haines argues that their foundational mission to help young adults contemplate the deepest questions of human life has withered [1].
He contrasts today’s campus climate with the philosophical ideal captured in Plato’s Symposium, where Socrates and his companions engage in dialogue on love and truth. In contrast, Haines highlights the incident at Queensland University of Technology, where an event labeled a “symposium” was marked by racist chanting and controversy. This, he suggests, shows how performative activism has displaced genuine learning. Such a shift leaves the next generation of educated leaders without meaningful intellectual or ethical formation.
To illustrate what is missing, Haines turns to the example of John Stuart Mill. As Mill recounts in his Autobiography, he suffered a deep personal crisis after realizing that achieving his political goals would not necessarily bring happiness. His recovery came through reading, particularly the poetry of William Wordsworth, which revived his emotional and spiritual life. For Mill, reading became a source of meaning in itself rather than a means to an end.
Haines argues that this vision captures the true purpose of university education: to enter the company of the great thinkers of the past and explore questions of justice, truth, beauty and goodness. Yet this model has eroded. Influenced by the educational theories of Jean Jacques Rousseau and his followers, modern teaching often emphasizes emotional expression and grievance over careful study of enduring texts.
Meanwhile, universities chase rankings, funding and expansion. This leaves little room for the kind of teacher whose work centers on guiding students through primary texts. The great works that once shaped intellectual life are increasingly dismissed or treated with suspicion, reframed as tools of hidden power or exclusion rather than sources of insight.
Haines ends with a call to recover what has been lost. Universities, he argues, must once again become places where students are led toward wisdom through reflection and reading. It is only by returning to the foundational sources of meaning that higher education can reclaim its purpose [1].
References
[1] Simon Haines, “Academic Wisdom Lost in the Pursuit of Anger and Avarice”