The paper critically reviews the concept of "global flows", beginning with the discussions of flows and networks in Appadurai (1996), Castells (2000) and Held "et al." (1999). Emphasising the need to embed "global flows" in agency and history, and to explore global connectedness in terms of situated cases, the paper develops an analytical framework for analysing global flows in higher education. It then applies that framework in an examination of global "scapes", impacts, transformations, situatedness and relations of power in two national universities, research leaders in their nations but located in contrasting nations: Universitas Indonesia and the Australian National University. (Contains 3 tables and 6 notes.)