This is an interesting topic to me, working in academia - especially at Jesuit universities whose 500+ year philosophy of indepth research, study, scholarship and emphasis on knowledge and understanding strongly permeates those halls.
Having said that, I have a number of observations on this subject, but would like to add to this discussion one notable milestone in the recent move to void any reliable semblance of scholarship in Watch Tower Society publications or in the organisation of Jehovah's Witnesses internally, or in the public sphere. (The latter was even noticeable in projects like the year-long first-floor temporary exhibit in the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., and the collaboration with dozens of scholars and historians. However biased the effort may have been.)
The milestone I wanted to draw attention to was the ouster of W. Liverance and L. Bowen from the teaching staff at Gilead. While debatable, Gilead was the closest effort to scholarship, registered as a school of higher learning, a bible college, even officially founded as The 'Watchtower Bible College of Gilead.'
This move has been rumoured to have been as a result of those genuine men actually researching reliable sources in their work as instructors, dare I say, as Watchtower Scolars or even professors of Watchtower's Gilead "College." Members on this board have even heard reports that indicate that their dismissal was viewed as a "light" sentence, as they teetered on possible disfellowshippment or "excommunication."
Now, Gilead has moved from a "Bible School" to a training entity on policy matters for appointed Watchtower representatives in a variety of capacities, or already in "special full-time service."
Is it a coincidence that only two of the seven-member Governing Body studied at the school? And maybe such centres of potential scholarship, like the once-prolific, and seemingly more "research-oriented," Writing Department threaten a tight control? So that now the goal is simply, a focus on JW and WT policy, a complete limit on free-thinking, and an adherence to old and stubborn doctrine?