The past two decades have seen a massive increase in the level of activity of universities based in developed countries in the south-east Asian region. I wish to locate my remarks in the context of two major developments in the global picture of education. One is the economic relocation of higher education and the transformation of knowledge into an economically grounded export commodity, significantly, under the aegis of the World Trade Organization. The other is the shift in the financial relationships existing between public universities and the State in many developed countries. Both of these themes speak to the economic relocation of the university and higher education in general. The implications flowing from these developments for developing countries are significant as they try to position themselves in an era of so-called free trade.