This collection of 17 essays focuses on trends and issues in higher education from an international perspective. It includes: (1) "Introduction" (Zaghloul Morsy); (2) "The Idea of the University: Changing Roles, Current Crisis, and Future Challenges" (Torsten Husen); (3) "Patterns in Higher Education Development: Towards the Year 2000" (Philip G. Altbach); (4) "Autonomy and Accountability in Higher Education" (Orlando Albornoz); (5) "Open Universities: A Comparative Approach" (Tony Kaye and Greville Rumble); (6) "The Privatization of Higher Education" (Jandhyala B. G. Tilak); (7) "University, Research, Development" (Abdallah Laroui); (8) "Universities and National Development: Issues and Problems in Developing Countries" (Lawrence J. Saha); (9) "Rethinking the Financing of Post-Compulsory Education" (Jean-Claude Eicher and Thierry Chevaillier); (10) "French-Speaking Universities in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Critical Impasse" (Francois Orivel); (11) "Latin America: Higher Education in a Lost Decade" (Simon Schwartzman); (12) "The Problems of Higher Education in the Arab States" (Raji Abou-Chacra); (13) "Higher Education and Development: The Experience of Four Newly Industrializing Countries in Asia" (Jasbir Sarjit Singh); (14) "The Development of Higher Education in Eastern and Central Europe in the Aftermath of Recent Changes" (Jan Sadlak); (15) "Changing Higher-Education Policy: Three Western Models" (Osmo Kivinen and Risto Rinne); (16) "Higher Education in the United States in the Year 2000" (D. Bruce Johnstone); and (17) "Promoting Higher Education's Contribution to the Developing European Community" (Hywel Ceri Jones). Each essay contains a list of references. (MDM)