In this article (part one of two) I will consider, using the dramatistic model pioneered by Kenneth Burke, the "scene" or historical cultural ground of each "highly developed' national/regional area (The EU, the USA, Hong Kong [SAR], and Singapore) in terms of their Higher Education (HE) systems. After these analyses, then I look to the "agent" who put Curricula Reform (CR) into place (usually Ministries of (higher) education, but also labor ministries) in pursuit of "relevance," and then to the "agency" or means that they employ (or not) to make their "acts" of Curricula Reforms effective. I first look to the EU example, which has seen a great change in the era of the "Bologna Process which includes not only the established Western European nations, but also countries of Central and Eastern Europe that have been transitioning out of communism, second to the American (USA) universities that have embraced a "common core" curriculum, Harvard and Columbia Universities in particular, third, to Hong Kong (which has been moving from a traditional British system to an integrated senior high school and early university studies model based on the American "common core"), and fourth and finally, Singapore's third stage of developing an HE system well adapted to a "knowledge society."