The vocabulary of higher education is being devalued. The use of "expert" and "elite" as pejorative terms undermines the trust on which successful societies are based. In a "post-factual" society, universities have to re-establish a respect for objective truth and powerful arguments, becoming trust building as well as truth seeking. Students must be led, through active debate, to position themselves on the continuum between open and closed that is now more salient than the old political spectrum running from left to right.