This article highlights the tenth conference of the Alliance of Universities for Democracy (AUDEM) held in Budapest, Hungary. Over the past ten years, AUDEM members have been instrumental in the reform of higher education in Central and Eastern Europe based on democratic principles. This year, government officials, college administrators, faculty members, and academic librarians from around the world met to foster continuing discourse on the direction higher education might move in the future and the implications this presents for all of us in a global society.