Philip Altbach

Philip G. Altbach is an American author, researcher and former professor at Boston College, and the founding director of the Boston College Center for International Higher Education.

Early life Philip Altbach was born in Chicago in 1941 and was educated at the University of Chicago (AB, 1962; AM, 1963; PhD, 1966). In 1960 as a college freshman, he imported peace symbol buttons into the United States from Britain in 1960. Later, Altbach traveled to England to meet with British peace groups as a delegate from the Student Peace Union (SPU) and on his return he persuaded the SPU to adopt the symbol. Some of his books include: Turmoil and Transition: The International Imperative in Higher Education, Comparative Higher Education, and Student Politics in America. He is co-editor the International Handbook of Higher Education, The Road to Academic Excellence: The Making of World-Class Research Universities, Leadership for World-Class Universities: Challenges for Developing Countries, and World Class Worldwide: Transforming Research Universities in Asia and Latin America.

Altbach's contribution to the field of international education has been widely recognized, particularly in relation to topics such as the academic profession, internationalization of higher education, academic mobility, and linking academic research to policy practice. Moreover, he is considered one of the foremost scholars on student politics and activism in the 20th century.