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This article looks into the current status of collaboration between the BRICS countries in higher education. We begin with an analysis of the radical changes currently affecting universities across the world as a result of three concurrent trends: massification, globalization, and internationalization. The author explains the two main approaches that the BRICS countries could adopt to address these challenges: projects of excellence (such as the Russian Project 5-100) and the creation of trans-university networks (such as the BRICS university network project). The first approach aims to create elite establishments and promote better integration into the worldwide academic sphere, while the second addresses urgent questions for society in the BRICS countries. The author concludes that while projects of excellence are helping to establish world-class university teaching, the network approach is providing responses that are better suited to current needs in the BRICS countries.