Huge amounts of money are being pumped into breakthrough research endeavours that blur the line between philanthropy and investment, such as the Arc Institute, Episteme and the Ellison Institute of Technology. Should traditional institutions be excited or afraid? Jack Grove reports

Amid mission drift and falling public support, we must reject the assumption that teaching is primarily a window into how great minds think and reconnect with its value as a practical, trainable vocation – from which even research is a potentially expendable distraction, says Arjun Appadurai