This paper criticizes present day university from an academic perspective. For this purpose the works Mission of the University by Jose Ortega y Gasset, Knowledge and Work by Max Scheler and Science, Society and Culture by Susan Haack are reviewed, plus the author's experience of forty years teaching at the university. The thesis is that present day university does not correspond to its essence as an institution of superior knowledge. This because in education, research, and contribution to the development of the country, present day universities do as doing as the conception of the university as a commercial enterprise has as perverse effects: a research that cannot cope with the failure intrinsic to any genuine research; an education that does not educates integrally that prepares only professionals; and the alleged contribution to the development of the country is only a response to the market.