If universities sacrifice philosophy on the altar of profit, what’s next?

Julian Baggini on Guardian:

You might think that a university philosophy department facing closure in Hull is of as much interest to the average person as the shutting of a butcher’s in Wolverhampton is to a vegetarian in Totnes. There are almost as many universities as high streets now, and for every closure here there’s an opening somewhere else.

But the events unfolding on Humberside are symptomatic of a deep malaise affecting not just universities but the wider culture. The crude pursuit of what is “practical”, “efficient” or “useful” is threatening everything of value that isn’t evidently profitable.

There is a current state of art concerning something like a separation of "knowledge" and "practice". The author of this article uses this separation to try to legitimize Philosophy despite of the "pratical" values of another subjects.

But, despite of the charge that Philosophy would have no use in face of a utilitarian world, the author invests in the fact that Philosophy would have a kind of "inherent value" and the philosopher can "choose" for not being utilitarian.

This seems to be a mistake, cause of Philosophy is, in front of the applied sciences, the same as Physics, Mathematics, or Statistics.

For example, the physicist has subjects and tasks much broader than that ones of engineering, but a physicist working with engineers, or an engineer with formation in physics can make a big difference. The same is true if one thinks of a physicist, a mathematician, or even an engineer that's a good calculator, doing "applied" tasks in economy or administration: there is much more extensive expertise and rigor than in the standard "technical" skills in economy or administration.

The same thing happens in Philosophy. The conceptual analysis, the rigor and the analysis of texts, all of these competences exceed that ones of the "applied" sciences. Even the philosophical subjects are much broader and not restricted to "applied" affairs. 

Even the XIX's universities, which made philosophy a kind of an academic discipline, knew of this strategic role.