Andris Barblan was secretary general of the European University Association (EUA, based in Geneva, Switzerland)-the successor of the Association of European Universities (CRE)-from 1976 to 2002. He continues to advise the EUA on the presence of European higher education in the other parts of the world, thus looking at the potential extra-European impact of some 600 universities and thirty National Rectors' Conferences from forty-five European countries, the members of the Association. His main activities, however, are currently linked to the Magna Charta Observatory on Fundamental University Values and Rights, an institution co-sponsored by EUA and the University of Bologna, Italy, to monitor institutional autonomy and academic freedom as tools of university responsibility in social development. Dr. Barblan holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Geneva and is a member of the Universities Project Advisory Committee.