The process of globalization has increased the interdependence of people, information, ideas and institutions around the world. Its many positive benefits include facilitating dialogue and exchange among people from different cultural and religious backgrounds and providing access to knowledge and opportunities through information communication technologies. However, globalization has also deepened inequalities for individuals and countries alike, and there is a growing gap between those who have access to knowledge, and learn to master it, and those who do not. It is no longer sufficient to focus on the "digital divide": we must also tackle the "knowledge divide". If we do not, the risk is that it will grow exponentially. Higher Education has an indispensable role to play in closing this divide. It can both reinforce the beneficial aspects of globalization and mitigate its negative impacts for the common good of humankind. By providing access to knowledge, and imparting the skills and values needed to resolve and manage the impediments to sustainable development and peace, higher education and higher education institutions can make a substantial contribution towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Higher education institutions also have a unique potential to serve as platforms for international and intercultural dialogue, for analysing and exchanging ideas and perspectives, and for establishing common solutions to address other global challenges, such as climate change. While higher education institutions have the capacity to influence globalization in a more sustainable direction, they too are being transformed by the forces of globalization. These forces have certainly encouraged greater international cooperation among higher education institutions, governments, private-industry, multilateral organizations, and civil society. But they have also increased inequalities between higher education institutions in developed and developing countries in key areas such as research for innovation. The International Conference "Pathways Towards a Shared Future: Changing Roles of Higher Education in a Globalized World", jointly organized by UNESCO and the United Nations University in August 2007, was an opportunity for these two multilateral organizations to join forces with decisionmakers from government and civil society to advance our understanding of the complex relations between globalization processes and higher education. In an excellent example of international cooperation and intercultural exchange, conference participants worked through the themes of research for innovation and social development, education for dialogue and peace, intercultural change, education for sustainable development and e-learning, to identify positive ways in which higher education and higher education institutions can contribute to the creation of sustainable and inclusive knowledge societies. [UNU website].

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