Policy Scholars Are from Venus; Policy Makers Are from Mars

Policy scholarship and policy-making are, and ought to be, two distinct knowledge-producing activities whose insights may inform, but are not dependent on, each other. Criticisms that higher education scholarship is not valuable to practitioners is based on a misleading linear view of how social knowledge influences behavior. Policy interests are ultimately better served when scholars determine their own long-term research agendas, rather than attempt to respond to policy makers' current issues.