This post builds on my previous post on PhD for what?
What can academics really do for/with community?
One of the students offered her thoughts during my teaching demo (I was invited for a campus visit) that academics (students included) use most of their skills to do research, while many organizations outside campus (including where they do internships, volunteering works, and others) do very little research. This is absolutely true.
It is about the split that in the field of philosophy often discussed: “the mind-body split.” In the ideal world, the two would need to be balance. The higher education institution serves more on the mind element of the split.