The terms “internationalisation” and “globalisation” have become common currency in UK higher education in recent years, and the sector has come to understand the terms so completely now that it is almost unnecessary to define them again, any more than we have to define what we mean by an engine every time we describe a car. As defined by Merriam Webster, internationalisation simply denotes “the act of making international”, while globalisation describes “the development of an increasingly global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital and the tapping of cheaper foreign labour markets”. For higher education, globalisation means working in a borderless world with new knowledge being communicated almost instantaneously around virtual global academic communities. It means our academic staff are globally mobile. Their primary loyalty may be to their global academic community rather than to any single institution. It means that we must be aware of events and trends throughout the globe which could impact on our university or offer new opportunities. It is the very basis of the way we see ourselves – are we a very good university in the West of England or are we a global player tuned into and impacting on the rhythms and information that shape the globe? We would contend that we are already the latter and that ensuring we develop further along this path is essential to our future success.