Published in Weber L. E & Duderstadt J. J. (eds) The Globalization of Higher Education, Economica, Glion Colloquium Series Nr. 5, London, Paris, Genève, 2008
Since the 1950s, Europe has been engaged in an ambitious political and economic integration process which received a new boost with the fall of the Berlin wall in 1999 and, soon afterwards, the collapse of the communist USSR. Twenty-five countries now make up the enlarged European Union, soon to be 27, with more expected to join later. Few people doubt that this free market of 450 million people is beneficial to the citizens of Europe. Nevertheless, Western Europe, and in particular the countries which adopted the Euro, is suffering from a slowdown in economic rowth, as well as high unemployment and a rapidly ageing population. At the same time, the economies of the East European countries which recently joined the E.U. are taking off, the United States is benefiting from more than 15 years of solid economic growth, and many Asian countries, in particular China, India and South Korea, are becoming major economic powers, as peasant ocieties and models of mass production transform themselves into genuinely innovatory producers…