Building on the analysis in his "Managing Civic and Community Engagement" (McGraw-Hill/Open University Press, 2007), the author offers an international perspective on the ways in which universities relate to their various communities. Relevant issues of leadership, policy and management are approached through key areas such as: the "narrative" of the institution (especially in relation to its foundation and development); funding of relevant activities (who pays for what, and with what strings attached); external relationships, including the sharing and management of risk (with partners and "stakeholders" of various kinds, as well with as the institutions of civil society and the state); the contributions of staff and students; and the physical and moral "presence" of the university. He concludes by assessing the prospects for a twenty-first century reinvention of liberal higher education.