What is globalization and how does it affect higher education policy and academic institutions? The answer is deceivingly simple and the implications are surprisingly complex.1 For higher education，globalization implies the social，economic，and technological forces that shape the realities of the 21st century. These elements include advanced information technology, new ways of thinking about financing higher education and a concomitant acceptance of market forces and commercialization, unprecedented mobility for students and professors， and other developments. Significantly，the idea of mass access to higher education has meant unprecedented expansion of higher education everywhere — there are about 134 million students in postsecondary education2 worldwide，and many countries have seen unprecedented and sustained expansion in the past several decades. These global trends are for the most part inevitable. Nations, and academic institutions, must constructively cope with the implications.3Massification Massification4 is without question the most ubiquitous global influence of the past half century or more.5 The United States had the first mass higher education system, beginning as early as the 1920s. Europe followed in the 1960s, and parts of Asia a decade or so later. The developing countries were the last to expand. Most of the growth of the 21st century is taking place in developing and middle-income countries. North America, Europe, and a number of Pacific Rim nations now enroll 60 percent or more of the relevant age group6 in higher education. What has massification brought?Public good vs. private good.7 Stimulated in part by the financial pressures of massification and also by broader changes in economic thinking, including the neoliberal agenda,8 higher education is increasingly considered in economic terms a private good — a benefit accruing mainly to individuals who should pay for it rather than a public good that contributes benefits to society and thus should be financially supported by the state.9 Varied funding patterns. For most countries，the state has traditionally been the main funder of higher education. Massification has placed great strains on state funding, and in all cases governments no longer believe they can adequately fund mass higher education. Other sources of funding need to be found — including student tuition and fees (typically the largest source)，a variety of government-sponsored and private loan programs, university income generating programs (such as industry collaboration or consulting)，and philanthropic support. Decline in quality vs. conditions of study. 10 On average in most countries，the quality of higher education has declined. In a mass system, top quality cannot be provided to all students.11 It is not affordable，and the ability levels of both students and professors necessarily become more diverse. University study and teaching are no longer a preserve for the elite — both in terms of ability and wealth. While the top of a diversified academic system may maintain its quality12 (although in some countries the top sector has also suffered)，the system as a whole declines. Globalization of the Academic Marketplace More than 2 million students are studying abroad，and it is estimated that this number will increase to 8 million in a few years. Many others are enrolled in branch campuses and twinning programs.13 There are many thousands of visiting scholars and postdocs studying internationally. Most significantly, there is a global circulation of academics. Ease of transportation, IT, the use of English，and the globalization of the curriculum have tremendously increased the international circulation of academic talent. Flows of students and scholars move largely from South to North — from the developing countries to North America and Europe. And while the “brain drain” of the past has become more of a “brain exchange”，with flows of both people and knowledge back and forth across borders and among societies, the great advantage still accrues to the traditional academic centers at the expense of the peripheries. Even China, and to some extent India, with both large and increasingly sophisticated academic systems, find themselves at a significant disadvantage in the global academic marketplace. For much of Africa, the traditional brain drain remains largely a reality.