We begin this paper by outlining the "classical" debate on the idea of a university. We then proceed to show how this intellectual ideal has been compromised by successive processes of reform privileging paradigms of managerialism and commodification at the expense of intellectualism in shaping and defining UK higher education, with equivalent processes at work in other countries. This serves to set the context for our central premise that an intellectual discourse needs to be repositioned and reinstated in higher education. Finally, we consider the relationship between three competing paradigms--the intellectual model, the managerial model and the consumerist model-- with a view to highlighting the contradictions and incompatibilities between all the three. We conclude by outlining a tentative proposal for a new, three-way conversation about the future of higher education, a process we term a "trialogue".