Globalization's Muse: Universities and Higher Education Systems in a Changing World Editors; John Aubrey Douglass, C. Judson King, Irwin Feller Universities and national higher education systems have become Globalization's Muse, in essence a widely recognized and worshiped route for full participation in the knowledge society. Research universities, in particular, serve as an unparalleled source of knowledge production and artful innovation, a foundation for modern science, an unequaled generator of talent, and a nearly required path for socioeconomic mobility in the postmodern world. How to build, nurture, and sustain internationally competitive higher education systems is the contemporary focus of national, supernational, as well as regional and local policymaking throughout the world. The book describes and analyzes these changes in the global landscape in higher education, with special attention to the themes of convergence, competition, and congruity of policies and practices, and drawing upon the varied perspectives and experiences of a combination of international and U.S. authors. The intention is to help inform lawmakers and the higher education community - students, scholars, and practitioners alike - of these profound efforts of governments and institutions and to suggest that the United States needs to take stock of new competition. Here you will find a refreshing dose of comparative reality - a glimpse into a complex and evolving story rooted in a new paradigm in which the U.S. is no longer the clear leader. John Aubrey Douglass is a senior research fellow in public policy and higher education at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley. C. Judson King is the director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley, and the former provost and senior vice president of the University of California System. Irwin Feller is senior visiting scholar at the American Association for the Advancement of Science and professor emeritus of economics at the Pennsylvania State University.