peer reviewed ; Located in small states with extraordinary migration flows, the University of Luxembourg and Qatar University reflect global norms relating to research universities. Each has opened its doors widely in recent decades to scholars and students from around the world. Higher education in both countries relies to a considerable extent on global mobility; indeed, the international dimension of higher education is a precondition for their development. Elaborated internationalisation strategies characterise the universities in Luxembourg and Qatar, embedded in hyper-diverse and very wealthy nation-states as well as in significant regional and global networks. In these two cases, the ‘national’ flagship universities are thoroughly ‘international’. These recently founded universities rely on global scientific networks, without which higher education and science could not flourish. Likewise, these young international national universities facilitate the accelerating global reach of higher education and science as they systematically foster the global recruitment, cross-border mobility and multicultural networks of faculty, staff and students. ; SPHERE