Universitas 21 is an international network of 18 leading research-intensive universities in nine countries. Collectively, its members enrol about 500,000 students, employ around 40,000 academics and researchers and have over 2 million alumni. Its purpose is to facilitate collaboration and cooperation between the member universities and to create entrepreneurial opportunities for them on a scale that none of them would be able to achieve operating independently or through traditional bilateral alliances.

Established in 1997, Universitas 21 engages in a number of activities on three different levels:

• The first level encourages traditional collegial activities such as student exchange programmes.
• The second level facilitates greater international collaboration between members, such as the sharing of learning materials.
• The third level focuses on opportunities for entrepreneurial activities. An example of this is U21Global(an online university created in partnership with Thomson Learning).

All Universitas 21 member institutions are research-led, comprehensive universities providing a strong quality assurance framework to the network's activities.

For further information about the network and the member universities please read our brochure Universitas 21: An International Network of Higher Education published in October 2004.