This essay is trying to discuss the present developments in European research and higher education policy planning in a long-range historical perspective. The main thesis of the article is that the general development during the last 30 odd years is not only an expression of an internal scientific or a short-term financial crisis. Instead we are witnessing the effects of a process of deep institutional and cultural dissolution that goes to the heat of the traditional European university system, a crisis which eventually will widen the already huge gap between European and US research and higher learning even further. Even if the starting point of the analysis is the present day situation in Scandinavia its implications, nevertheless, are relevant to the entire European situation and development
