At the 2010 American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual conference, a featured invited session focused on "How professors think: inside the curious world of academic judgment." Harvard University professor and author, Michele Lamont, articulated a thoughtful precis of her book. Her material concentrates on the "curious" world of selecting faculty for some of the most prestigious national fellowships and also those highly prized ones administered by particular institutions. As she spoke, the author cogitated on two additional volumes, "Structuring mass higher education: the role of elite institutions," edited by David Palfreyman and Ted Tapper and "Higher education in turmoil: the changing world of internationalization," by Jane Knight. An overarching theme of the three volumes focuses on dimensions of excellence at the individual faculty or department levels, the university or institutional levels, the national levels, and the global or international spheres. The selection of faculty for eminent fellowships and grants permeates Lamont's volume, while the structures of higher education in relation to elite universities in various nations are highlighted in Palfreyman and Tapper's. The evolving components of internationalisation that enhance quality education feature prominently in Knight's book. All contend that overarching characteristics of higher education must be scrutinised in order to maintain and foster academic and institutional excellence, which is the central focus of this analytical essay.