This essay examines how universities in non-Western, non-English-speaking countries respond to global competition in higher education, where English has become dominant due to “linguistic imperialism.” I pose critical questions about how these institutions can not only endure but thrive amid global competition, and whether intensified global competition has improved the quality of education. Focusing on Japan, I explore both successful and challenging aspects of globalization in its institutions of higher education. While Japan achieved success in adapting during the late nineteenth century, the emphasis on learning foreign languages, including English, diminished after World War II. The Japanese case illustrates the complex trade-offs between ensuring educational equity and global competitiveness, and highlights the evolving dynamics and challenges faced by universities as well as policymakers in non-English-speaking countries in the global higher-education landscape.

“Probing Human Origins” explores, from various perspectives, how humans became human. This collection of papers acknowledges the importance of genetic ‘blueprints’ but rejects the idea that the DNA sequence of the human genome contains a book of instructions that defines being human. Instead, it promotes the idea that during humankind’s evolutionary history, genic changes occurred in ancestral genomes that were positively selected to help shape the distinctive human phenotype.