ABSTRACT. In this essay, the author tries to come to grips with what he considers to be a deep institutional and intellectual crisis in practically all higher education systems in Continental Europe, and ventures possible remedies for overcoming present structural and political dysfunctions. He discusses a number of confluent – internal and external – forces of change that, in his view, will fundamentally and irrevocably affect higher education in general, and the future of the European universities in particular. pp. 87–99

Keywords: disintegration; politization; forces of change; public and private good; Europe