miR-27a and BTG2 are implicated in gliomagenesis and glioma progression. However, hitherto, a link between miR-27a and BTG2 in glioma has not been reported. In the present study, we investigated the effects of miR-27a on the proliferation and invasiveness of glioblastoma cells in vitro and in a mouse xenograft model and further studied the relation between miR‑27a expression and its target gene BTG2, which was identified by computation prediction algorithms. Our MTT and clonogenic assays showed that miR-27a overexpression significantly increased the clonogenic growth of glioblastoma U87MG and U251MG cells. The Transwell assays further revealed that miR-27a overexpression markedly increased the number of migrated U87MG and U251MG cells. TargetScan and other prediction algorithms identified BTG2 as a target gene of miR-27a, which was confirmed by EGFP reporter and immunoblotting assays showing an inverse relation between miR-27a expression and endogenous BTG2 expression. BTG2 overexpression also increased the proliferation and invasiveness of glioblastoma cells and BTG2 functioned downstream of miR-27a in modulating the proliferation and migration of glioblastoma cells. In conclusion, miR-27a modulates human glioblastoma growth and invasion by targeting BTG2.