In the United States, confidence in higher education is currently under considerable strain. This is particularly the case among Republican voters. In 2025, only 26 per cent of them said they had a great deal of confidence in higher education, and only 19 per cent trusted leading American universities to provide politically neutral education.. By the way, nearly 40 per cent of Democratic voters also lacked much confidence in higher education, and 70 per cent of all voters felt that higher education was heading in the wrong direction.
This prompted Yale University to take action. After all, trust is essential to serving the public interest. A multidisciplinary committee of ten experts spent a year examining how this trust could be restored. The committee organised countless meetings, conducted hundreds of interviews and discussions with students and staff, and carried out an extensive review of the relevant literature. A few weeks ago, it presented its report, which included twenty recommendations. These relate, for example, to freedom of expression and academic freedom. But they also address curbing bureaucracy. And how to deal with mobile phones and social media in education.
Sympathetic and scathing
But as far as I’m concerned, the most compelling recommendation concerns the mission. In the more than three hundred years that Yale has existed, that mission has remained largely the same. Until ten years ago. Then Yale moved away from its emphasis on creating and disseminating knowledge, and expanded its mission to include matters such as ‘improving the world today’, educating ‘aspiring leaders worldwide’, and ‘fostering an ethical, interdependent, and diverse community’. The committee’s assessment of this expansion is both sympathetic and scathing; whilst these are certainly worthy goals, they are not part of what makes a university a university. To gain trust, a university must demonstrate what it does well. And that requires a focused, university-wide mission. The committee therefore recommended a return to the core: “Yale University’s mission is to create, disseminate, and preserve knowledge through research and teaching.” Yale’s board did not need to think long about this recommendation; it is already stated as such on the website.
Only halfway there
Anyone visiting Maastricht University’s website will see on the homepage: “Here, we work together towards a better future.” Two clicks in, it reads: “We see ourselves first and foremost as an open and inclusive academic community that strives for a social, safe and sustainable learning and working environment.” Of course, it is important that we all make an effort to ensure that everyone feels welcome at the university. But “first and foremost”? You don’t have to be against diversity and inclusivity to disagree with that.
The good news is that the decline in trust in the Netherlands does not seem to be as bad as it is elsewhere. In 2025, the Rathenau Institute reported that trust in science was relatively high. But trust takes years to build, seconds to destroy, and forever to repair. In its letter of recommendation, the Yale committee expresses the hope that its recommendations will also be of use to others. Let’s not wait ten years until we find ourselves in the same predicament as Yale. Let us take them to heart now and turn back while we are only halfway there: ‘Maastricht University. We research, we teach’.
Ewout Meijer is an associate professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience