Program Description: With such highly developed community college and further education sectors, why do the industrialized nations Australia, the US and the UK fall behind nations like Russia, Canada, and Japan in producing graduates? The global recession has highlighted similar problems across the first three countries, whose governments and education sectors are mobilizing in different ways to address similar problems and to improve educational capacity in the face of rising unemployment and international competition. What is the definition of failure as it relates to each country's students and the completion agenda? This session will highlight the current issues, best practices employed, and pitfalls encountered by the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia as each nation addresses the issue of improving postsecondary success rates through various combinations of public and private initiatives and government mandates.