Recent changes in education policy in Colombia —promoted by the State and in accord with international standards for measuring quality in higher education— have produced a crisis in anthropology, the humanities and in other social sciences whose knowledge has come to be viewed as unproductive and superfluous. The neoliberal underpinnings of university reforms have had diverse effects on the training of new professionals and on the world of work, including for those dedicated to university teaching and research. This article aims to expose and argue against the logic behind these transformations.