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'''Academic elitism''' is a charge sometimes levied at ]s and academics more broadly, arguing that academia or academics are prone to undeserved and/or pernicious ]; the term "]" often carries with it an implicit critique of academic elitism. Criticism of perceived academic elitism may or may not target ] in general, ] or education itself, but always{{Citation needed|date=February 2011}} targets present leadership, practices and/or policies in academia.

== Description ==
] often perceive themselves as champions of ordinary people and as defenders of ] against ], especially academic elitism -- e.g., some of economist ]'s writings (''Intellectuals and Society'') suggest that while academics and intellectuals have done much valuable work, they also have an undeserved "]" and face fewer disincentives than other professions against speaking outside their expertise. These critics argue that highly educated people form an isolated social group whose views tend to be overrepresented amongst ], ]s, and other members of the ] who often draw their salary and funding from taxpayers. Economist Dan Klein shows that the worldwide top-35 economics departments pull 76 percent of their faculty from their own graduates. He argues that the academic culture is pyramidal, not ], and resembles a closed and genteel social circle. Meanwhile it draws on resources from taxpayers, foundations, endowments, and tuition payers, and it judges the social service delivered. The result is a self-organizing and self-validating circle.<ref>
{{cite journal | ref=harv
| last=Klein | first=Daniel B.
| year=2005
| title=The Ph.D. Circle in Academic Economics
| journal=Econ Journal Watch
| volume=2 | issue=1
| pages=133–148
| url=http://econjwatch.org/issues/volume-2-issue-1-april-2005
}} }}
</ref>

Another criticism is that universities tend more to ] than intellectualism per se; for example, to protect their positions and prestige, academics may over-complicate problems and express them in obscure language (e.g., the ], a hoax by physicist ] attempting to show that American humanities professors invoke complicated, pseudoscientific jargon to support their political positions.) Some observers argue that, while academics often perceive themselves as members of an elite, their influence is mostly imaginary: "Professors of humanities, with all their leftist fantasies, have little direct knowledge of American life and no impact whatever on public policy."<ref>Paglia, Camille. (1992) ''Sex, Art and American Culture : New Essays'', ISBN 9780679741015, p. ix.</ref>

Academic elitism suggests that in highly competitive academic environments only those individuals who have engaged in ] are deemed to have anything worthwhile to say, or do. It suggests that individuals who have not engaged in such scholarship are ]. Steven Zhang of the Cornell Daily Sun has described the graduates of elite schools, especially those in the Ivy League, of having a "smug sense of success" because they believe "gaining entrance into the Ivy League is an accomplishment unto itself."


It is also an ideological belief that only those who attended the most elite or prestigious universities (such as ] schools, ], ]) and Russell Group are capable of obtaining wealth and power. Proponents of academic elitism justify this belief by claiming that this is just a by-product of ]. {{Citation needed|date=October 2009}}

==See also==
*]
*]
*'']''
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]

==References==
{{reflist}}

* {{cite book | ref=harv
| last= Adams | first=Mike S.
| year=2004
| title=Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel: Confessions of a Conservative College Professor
| publisher=Harbor House
| isbn=1-891799-17-7
}}
* {{cite journal | doi=10.2466/PR0.68.3.891-894 | ref=harv
| last=Bair | first=Jeffrey H.
| last2=Boor | first2=Myron
| year=1991
| title=The Academic Elite in Law: Linkages Among Top-Ranked Law Schools
| journal=Psychological Reports
| volume=68
| pages=891–94
}}
* {{cite journal | ref=harv
| last=Bair | first=Jeffrey H.
| year=2003
| title=The Academic Elite in Law: Linkages Among Top-Ranked Law Schools
| journal=The American Journal of Economics and Sociology
| url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0254/is_2_62/ai_100202314
}}
* Keally, Charles T., "''''". Sophia International Review no. 28, 2006.
* Lin, Xi, "''; Cynicism and disillusionment are protocol for UW elites''". The Daily of the University of Washington, 1998.
* Zhang, Steven, "''[http://cornellsun.com/section/opinion/content/2011/04/12/poison-ivy-league The Poison Ivy League''". The Cornell Daily Sun, 2011.
* Newitz, Annalee (2000), "''''". Salon.com, 2000.
* ], "''No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities''". 1986. ISBN 0-19-503557-7
* Sprain, Leah (2004), "''''", Student writing on public scholarship
*


==Further Reading==
*Trow, Martin, "Problems in the Transition from Elite to Mass Education," Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, 1973 .

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