<p>Concerns about the “politicization” of the universities, expressed for many decades, have become increasingly mainstream within our politics, and highly prominent in the “culture war.” A view, vocally articulated in our public discourse, is of academics as an enemy within, breeding dangerous doctrines which have leaked out, disrupting Western society, even posing an existential threat to it. This article examines the substantial contribution to this narrative by the conservative academic Kenneth Minogue. As a public intellectual, Minogue engaged vigorously with these matters, across multiple publications. This included his involvement with the Gould Report on “Marxist and radical penetration,” one of the more controversial episodes in British higher education. The polarized debate this fomented connected to perennial debates about academic freedom, and the relationship between political commitment and academic inquiry. Minogue’s views on higher education connected directly to his wider critique of the ideological frame of mind and the rise of an interventionist state. I conclude by exploring how fears over leftward shifts in academia became an important ingredient of the influential New Right movement he was a part of. I argue&#xa0;that we are seeing something similar today, with concerns about politicization articulated most vociferously by the contemporary “civilizational” right. Minogue’s work allows us to see how these critiques, though not groundless, are suffused with tropes and exaggerations.</p>