The public responsibility for higher education and research is a cornerstone of the European university heritage. Yet, our societies are changing rapidly, and clinging to old solutions will not further the very values that these solutions were originally designed to protect. The claim on public attention and public funds is growing, but public funds are not, or at least not at the same rate. While public funding of higher education and research is still important, the concept of public responsibility must be understood much more widely. It must also be nuanced by looking more closely at different degrees and levels of public responsibility as well as at the instruments available for exercising such responsibility. The book, which builds on a Council of Europe conference, aims to explore what public responsibility means in the complex societies that have just crossed the threshold to the 21st century by examining both overall higher education policies and specific aspects of it such as higher education for a democratic culture, access to research results, financing, equal opportunities, the approach to regulation and new trends in higher education.