This paper argues that higher education has a long history of globalising, though the form of these processes has been different. Two are identified; first, a normative order based on common frameworks; second, the expansion of formal exchanges of inputs and outputs from higher education. Different countries, however, are positioned differently in this. Through an analysis of France's higher education sector, the paper argues that unlike most English speaking and South Asian countries in the recent past, France seems much less interested in increasing its share of the international market of HE teaching services than in developing a competitive R-D university-industry sector. This implies the de-construction of the inherited system, and a reallocation of resources toward a new top-tier of public establishments strongly linked with private economic interests. For that purpose a radical reform of the HE sector was needed. To implement such a reform, one that is strongly opposed by a large part of the academic community, the government has relied on the external resources of international norms and rules of governance. In this field, France appears both as a norm-maker and a norm-taker. (Contains 18 notes.)