Martin Carnoy, Prashanti Loyalka, Maria Dobryakova, Rafiq Dossani, Isak Froumin, Katherine Kuhns, Jandhyala B.G. Tilak & Rong Wang. University Expansion in a Changing Global Economy. Triumph of the BRICS? Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2013. ISBN: 978-0-8047-8601-0. Pages: 384.

Brazil, Russia, India and China, commonly known as BRICs, are the world’s largest developing countries and will possibly become the next economic powerhouses in the course of the coming decades. This means that the socioeconomic changes occurring in the BRIC countries will also gradually entail a shift to a knowledge-based service economy. Yet, in order to fulfil the promising predictions, BRIC countries will have to adapt their higher education sectors in order to establish the necessary base for further economic growth. The authors of this research publication put their focus on the role of the state and try to assess how each state develops its higher education system. The study is above all comparative, contrasting national and subnational differences and identifying shared patterns, and empirical, by using large-scale data in order to give a comprehensive picture of the overall higher education systems in the four different countries. Particular focus is given to the state and its role in developing and adapting the higher education sector.