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In the current economic crisis the role of government has once again become central. Similarly, as the limits of the unregulated market are becoming clear in the economy, the public responsibility (responsibility of the state) for higher education is once again taking centre stage in a context of growing expectations that higher education will contribute to the solutions needed. The notion of public responsibility for higher education is not the same as public responsibility of higher education, though they are closely interconnected and there is an expected mutuality of benefits when these two sides of the coin are balanced properly. The collection of papers presented here focuses primarily on the former, namely the public responsibility for higher education. The 'Asia and the Pacific region' section contains the following papers: In search of relevance: higher education for participatory research and sustainable development / Rajesh Tandon; Higher education: a public good or a commodity for trade?: commitment to higher education or commitment of higher education to trade / Jandhyala B. G. Tilak. The 'Europe region' section contains: Higher education as a 'public good and public responsibility': what does it mean? / Sjur Bergan; Bologna seminar on the public responsibility for higher education and research: final report of the conference / Eva Egron Polak. The 'Latin America and the Caribbean' section contains: Higher education in the World Trade Organization (WTO): a threat to the future of higher education in the world / Rafael Guarga; Higher education: a public good, a duty of the state / Jose Dias Sobrinho.

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The Council of Europe/UNESCO Recognition Convention (also known as the Lisbon Recognition Convention) provides the legal framework for academic recognition in Europe, and it serves a double purpose: as a legal text and as a guide to good practice. The [European Network of National Information Centres] ENIC and [Network of National Academic Recognition Centres] NARIC Networks promote the implementation of the Convention and seek to develop a better common understanding of recognition issues across the European Region, which also includes some countries outside of geographical Europe. A particular challenge is developing a common understanding of the concept of qualifications, broadly made up of five elements: quality, level, workload, profile and learning outcomes. It is in relation to these elements - and particularly in relation to learning outcomes - that possible substantial differences between qualifications should be assessed. The developing qualifications framework in Europe should facilitate recognition, even if practices still need to develop and better policies need to be developed for the assessment of the increasing number of qualifications not linked to a specific national framework.

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