1. The prospects for the BRICs: the new academic superpowers? / P. Altbach
2. Higher education, the academic profession, and economic development in Brazil / S. Schwartzman
3. Changing realities: Russian higher education and the academic profession / G. Androushchak, Y. Kuzminov & M. Yudkevich
4. India: streamlining the academic profession for a knowledge economy / N. Jayaram
5. The Chinese academic profession: new realities; M. Wanhua and W. Jianbo
6. The changing American academic profession / M. Finkelstein and K. Iglesias.