ABSTRACT The article re-examines Ortega y Gasset's Mission of the University and works by the same author, principally in order to see which questions raised by Ortega about Higher Education continue to be relevant. Three related areas of his work are examined: the role of the intellectual in society, his doctrine of economy in education, and his central argument for a pedagogy of the university. The area of study he defines as ‘culture˚s is examined and related to his views on the individual and personal freedom and to the proposed curriculum of the ideal university. Ortega's pedagogical theory rests on the limitations of the learner as well as on the range of things to be learned. The overall aim of Ortega's proposed reform of the university is to improve public political and social life. The argument includes a closer look at Ortega's view of the value of the study of history. The paper ends with a summary of the limitations and values to our own circumstances of Ortega's educational proposals.