Basic elements of the higher education system are considered, along with variations across nations (the United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan, Italy, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Australia, Canada, the United States, Poland, Yugoslavia, Mexico, and Thailand). Three basic elements of the organization of higher education system are identified: the way work tasks are arranged, primary norms and values, and the distribution of legitimate power throughout the system. Attention is directed to: national support structures for academics; the organization of academic work around knowledge; the division of academic labor by discipline and by sectors/institutional types; the foundations of academic beliefs and disciplinary points of view; integration in higher education through bureaucracy, politics, professions, and the market; and the way in which change occurs, including the contradiction between discipline and system, and the process of differentiation. The efforts of internal interest groups to do their work, protect their functions, and react to pressure are also addressed. It is concluded that the clash of social values in higher education will require considerable adjustments, and the systems most likely to prosper will be those that divide power, support variety, and allow ambiguity. (SW)