Financial trends and technology are changing government policies toward higher education in countries all around the globe. Governments are rethinking economic-development priorities and the role higher education should play in helping meet those priorities. China, for example, is creating new higher education institutions with the goal of enhanced international influence, while other countries, like India and those in the Gulf States, are establishing many more colleges and universities to meet the basic educational needs of their populations. Poorer parts of the world are also awakening to the need to pay more attention to the economic-development potential of higher education. While some countries are actually cutting back overall financial support for higher education, such major changes in emphasis and focus are fundamentally altering the landscape. In one way or another, these trends are creating a new competitive environment for higher education on a global scale, one likely to impact virtually every size and type of academic institution--whether they have big international ambitions, small ones, or none at all--in at least three key areas: (1) student recruitment; (2) fundraising; and (3) talent migration.