As never before in their long history, universities have become instruments of national competition as wellas instruments of peace. They are the place of the scientific discoveries that move economies forward, andthe primary means of educating the talent required to obtain and maintain competitive advantage. But at thesame time, the opening of national borders to the flow of goods, services, information and especiallypeople has made universities a powerful force for global integration, mutual understanding and geopoliticalstability.

In response to the same forces that have driven the world economy, universities have become more self-consciously global: seeking students from around the world who represent the entire range of cultures andvalues, sending their own students abroad to prepare them for global careers, offering courses of study thataddress the challenges of an interconnected world and collaborative (合作的) research programs to advancescience for the benefit of all humanity.

Of the forces shaping higher education none is more sweeping than the movement across borders. Over thepast three decades the number of students leaving home each year to study abroad has grown at an annual rateof 3.9 percent, from 800,000 in 1975 to 2.5 million in 2004. Most travel from one developed nation to another,but the flow from developing to developed countries is growing rapidly. The reverse flow from developed todeveloping countries, is on the rise, too. Today foreign students cam 30 percent of the doctoral degreesawarded in the United States and 38 percent of those in the United Kingdom. And the number crossing bordersfor undergraduate study is growing as well, to 8 percent of the undergraduates at Americas best institutions andI0 percent of all undergraduates in the U.K. In the United States,20 percent of the newly hired professors inscience and engineering arc foreign-born, and in China many newly hired faculty members at the top researchuniversities received their graduate education abroad.

Universities are also encouraging students to spend some of their undergraduate years in another country; InEurope, more than 140,000 students participate in the Erasmus program each year, taking courses for credit inone of 2,200 participating institutions across the continent. And in the United States, institutions are helpingplace students in summer internships (实习) abroad to prepare them for global careers. Yale and Harvard haveled the way, offering every undergraduate at least one international study or internship opportunity--andproviding the financial resources to make it possible.

Globalization is also reshaping the way research is done. One new trend involves sourcing portions of aresearch program to another country. Yale professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator TianXu directs a research center focused on the genetics of human disease at Shanghais Fudan University, incollaboration with faculty colleagues from both schools. The Shanghai center has 95 employees and graduatestudents working in a 4,300-square-meter laboratory facility. Yale faculty, postdoctors and graduate studentsvisit regularly and attend videoconference seminars with scientists from both campuses. The arrangementbenefits both countries; Xus Yale lab is more productive, thanks to the lower costs of conducting research inChina, and Chinese graduate students, postdoctors and faculty get on-the-job training from a world-classscientist and his U.S. team.

As a result of its strength in science, the United States has consistently led the world in the commercializationof major new technologies, from the mainframe. computer and integrated circuit of the 1960s to the Internetinfrastructure (基础设施) and applications software of the 1990s. The link between university-based scienceand industrial application is often indirect but sometimes highly visible: Silicon Valley was intentionallycreated by Stanford University, and Route 128 outside Boston has long housed companies spun off from MITand Harvard. Around the world, governments have encouraged copying of this model, perhaps mostsuccessfully in Cambridge, England, where Microsoft and scores of other leading software and biotechnologycompanies have set up shop around the university.

For all its success, the United States remains deeply hesitant about sustaining the research-university model~Most politicians recognize the link between investment in science and national economic strength, but supportfor research funding has been unsteady. The budget of the National Institutes of Health doubled between 1998and 2003, but has risen more slowly than inflations since then. Support for the physical sciences andengineering barely kept pace with inflation during that same period. The attempt to make up lost ground iswelcome, but the nation would be better served by steady, predictable increases in science funding at the rate oflong-term GDP growth, which is on the order of inflation plus 3 percent per year.

American politicians have great difficulty recognizing that admitting more foreign students can greatly promotethe national interest by in. creasing international understanding. Adjusted for inflation, public funding: forinternational exchanges and foreign-language study is well beloW the levels of 40 yearS ago. In the wake ofSeptember 11, changes in the visa process caused a dramatic decline inthe number of foreign students seeking admission to U.S. universities, and a corresponding surge in enrollments in Australia, Singapore and the U.K.Objections from American university and business leaders led to improvements in the process and a reversal ofthe decline, but the United States is still seen by many as unwelcoming to international students.

Most Americans recognize that universities contribute to the nations well-being through their scientificresearch, but many fear that foreign students threaten American competitiveness by taking their knowledge andskills back home. They fail to grasp that welcoming foreign students to the United States has two importantpositive effects: first, the very best of them stay in the States and--like immigrants throughout history--strengthen the nation; and second, foreign students who study in the United States become ambassadors formany of its most cherished (珍视) values when they return home. Or at least they understand them better. InAmerica as elsewhere, few instruments of foreign policy are as effective in promoting peace and stability aswelcoming international university students. American universities prepare their undergraduates for global careers by giving them chances for international study or internship.