"National CrossTalk" is a publication of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. The National Center promotes public policies that enhance opportunities for quality education and training beyond high school. The primary purpose of "National CrossTalk" is to stimulate informed discussion and debate of higher education issues. This issue of "National CrossTalk" contains the following articles: (1) Austerity Measures: Students Protest as a Cash-Strapped Government Lets British Universities Triple Their Fees (Jon Marcus); (2) "Outcome Funding": Tennessee Experiments with a Performance-Based Approach to College Appropriations (Robert A. Jones); (3) Reversal of Fortune: Ireland's "Celtic Tiger" Economic Miracle Is Followed by an Epic Downturn (Jon Marcus); and (4) Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Newly Established University of Minnesota Rochester Has a Radically Different Approach to Higher Education (Kathy Witkowsky). Regular sections include: (1) News from the Center; and (2) Other Voices, which includes: (a) The West Virginia Experience: Creating a Sustainable Public Agenda for Higher Education (Brian Noland); and (b) "Critical Thinking": Can Assessments Determine Whether College Students Are Learning What They Need to Know? (William R. Doyle). "Presidential Leadership for Public Purpose," a special report by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, is also included.