Over the next 00 years, Canadian universities will face a new pattern of competition for the world's best academic talent. Traditional competitors in the United States, the United Kingdom and continental Europe are under extraordinary budget pressures, and those pressures will likely become more severe. Public universities in the UK and continental Europe have had their budgets cut quickly and sharply. By the time the US government has responded seriously to its fiscal crisis, its universities will have seen their funds shrink further. Private universities that have taken hits in their endowment portfolios face more years of low or zero bond returns and a dry well of alumni contributions.