This paper rebuts four common assumptions underlying criticisms of higher education policy scholarship and policy making. The first assumption, policymakers agree on the nature of policy problems and therefore on the kinds of research needed, is rebutted by noting that actually, there is no way to identify and research all possible future policy issues. The second assumption, policy scholars are not now engaged in policy-relevant research, is refuted by noting that an informal survey shows a continuing high production of policy-relevant research. The third assumption is that policymakers are not now influenced by policy scholarship. Actually, social and policy research is integrated into the policymaker's entire store of information and thus difficult to trace to specific policy changes. The fourth assumption, that increased attention by policy scholars to producing and disseminating policy-relevant research would improve policymaking, is also refuted. Actually, the approaches and interests of research scholars and policymakers may often be quite different. These four assumptions are seen to support the existence of "two cultures," policy scholarship and policymaking, whose insights may inform each other but are not dependent on each other. An appendix lists the author's laws of policy scholarship. (Contains 26 references.) (DB)