Cause of a Crisis: How the Mission of Modern Higher Education Providers Place the Humanities at the Margins

From the 1990s until the present, there has been a growing movement in the higher education sector worldwide, emphasizing the primacy of the natural sciences and commercial activity as an important part of 21st century education and workforce preparation. Since then, the ongoing discourse on higher education has also systematically led to the marginalization of humanities. This chapter explores the ways in which the statements of purpose of higher education institutions, and their subsequent activities, might contribute toward the current state of the humanities. The author argues that the self-perception of these entities is related to their organizational identity, values, and actions. Using discourse analysis, this work will also attempt to explore the mission statements of 15 major higher education institutions in Trinidad and Tobago, and how statements regarding their core work are related to the current crisis with the humanities. From this preliminary study, higher education providers may be able to reconsider the ways in which their core internal and market-driven activities might severely compromise their ability to adequately serve students and the wider society by extension.