Prof. Dr. Azlan Ab. Rahman shared a book that has the same thought on the soul of academia or university as been illustrated in the figure below. This book was published in 2008, written by Jennifer Washburn.
She opined that corporate funding of universities is growing and the money comes with strings attached. In return for this funding, universities and professors are acting more and more like for-profit patent factories whereby the university funds are shifting from the humanities and the less profitable science departments into research labs, and the skill of teaching is valued less and less.
Slowly, but surely, universities are abandoning their traditional role as disinterested sources of education, alternative perspectives, and wisdom.
This growing influence of corporations over universities affects more than just today’s college students (and their parents). It compromises the future of all those whose careers depend on a university education, and all those who will be employed,governed, or taught by the products of American universities.