The present invention relates to a broadband wireless access system, and more particularly, to a method in which a terminal acquires and updates global carrier configuration information of base stations in a network, and to an apparatus for performing the method. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method in which a terminal acquires carrier configuration information in a broadband wireless access system that supports multiple carriers comprises the following steps; transmitting a first message containing a change count value of the carrier configuration information acquired by the terminal: receiving, from the base station and in response to the first message, a second message containing the current change count value of the carrier configuration information; and, if the change count value of the first message and the change count value of the second message are different from each other, receiving a third message containing current carrier configuration information and the current change count value from the base station.