Given the growing need to look across national borders in order to be prepared for global challenges confronting higher education in the coming decades, it can be expected that institutional administrators in the U.S. and other western countries will need information on the quality and efficiency of their activities, including an international comparative perspective. This paper discusses the methodological and structural problems institutional researchers confront when trying to compare the attributes and quality of activities across institutions of higher education in various countries. The comparison of the efficiency and quality of doctoral education is used as an example. The paper defines the attributes of doctoral education as found in the Netherlands and the United States. Similarities and differences across the two nations are discussed and particular attention is given to methodological and structural problems that arise for institutional researchers making comparisons across the two nations' systems of doctoral education. (Contains 57 references.) (GLR)