The Bologna Process – Higher education in Europe and the role of the European Commission (original) (raw)
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Decentring European higher education governance The construction of expertise in the Bologna Process
Decentring European Governance, 2019
By its very nature, higher education governance in the EU is a decentred policy sector. On the one hand, the EU plays a merely supportive role while the Member States retain their formal prerogatives over this policy area. On the other hand, according to the principle of university autonomy, government intervention in the universities’ organisational, financial and academic functioning should be limited. Since the launch of the Lisbon Strategy, the European Commission has played an increasing role in supporting and directly participating in the formally intergovernmental Bologna Process. Based on empirical fieldwork carried out in Poland, Ukraine, France and Brussels this paper sheds light on the roles of expert groups which have been launched and supported by the European Commission: the Bologna Experts and Higher Education Reform Experts. The paper advances two major claims. First, these education experts are brokers between domestic and European political fields. By supporting these individuals, the European Commission seeks to generate its own clientele, a professional group that will promote European policies at the domestic level. Second, a comparison between the three country cases shows significant differences in the practices, position and narratives of expert groups.
Higher education as a form of European integration: how novel is the Bologna process?
ARENA Working Papers, 2006
This paper argues that at a time in which higher education has become central to the concerns of EU institutions as well as national governments, it is helpful to understand current policy initiatives-both the spin offs from the EU's Lisbon strategy and the intergovernmental Bologna Process-in the comparative terms of the dynamics of policy-making. Drawing on institutionalist frameworks biased towards process (Kingdon 1984, March and Olsen 1989, Barzelay 2003) and comparative historical analysis, it presents policy initiatives from the period 1955-87, including the supranational European University proposal and the Erasmus programme, as both historical events, and theorised configurations of agenda setting, alternative specification, and choice. It suggests that such a framework can be helpful to both those interested primarily in European integration and those whose interests lie in the dynamics of higher education policy-making in a multi-level setting.
How do the constituencies in higher education re-interpret Bologna’s function with regard to the European Higher Education Area? This research examines how institutional actors re-construct the policy framework in the light of their own institutional agendas. Drawing on empirical data from a survey of Academics, Students and Administrators in seven universities in Germany, Italy, Norway and Portugal, the analysis focuses on the processes of mediation within national and European policy depending on the location of institutional actors. It dissects the tensions between macro political processes and the role status and function of the different constituencies and sheds new light on the role played by the Academic, Administrative and Student Estates in re-interpreting the Bologna Declaration whilst adopting the reforms it introduces.
This research analyses the impact of deliberative governance mechanisms on policy reforms. This mode of governance involves the direct participation of state and non-state actors in meetings, during which participants are open to the exchange of arguments about a particular policy space and to reaching an agreement which can be non-binding. This research develops the theoretical claim that deliberative governance has a significant impact on the cognitive aspect of domestic policies and in particular individual attitudes. It focuses on the Bologna process that has been at the heart of European-wide reforms of higher education and investigates three aspects. First, a survey of participants in the Bologna process shows how their attitudes have changed. Secondly, case studies of the Sorbonne and Bologna agreements of the 25th of May 1998 and the 19th of June 1999 investigate how those changes of attitudes and policies fit participants’ interests. Thirdly, a comparison between reforms in England and France (mid-1980s-2007) discusses how changes of attitudes relate to domestic policy changes. The study explores two mechanisms that have been widely held to facilitate reforms, namely ‘learning’ and ‘strategic use’. The study finds that participants are open to changing their perceptions and receiving information on policy options in deliberations if it fits their interests. Deliberations also help diffuse paradigms which facilitate domestic reforms. More importantly, deliberative governance obeys a certain hierarchy when influencing individual attitudes. It starts by changing the most instrumental attitudes. However, all attitudes are connected, leading to a spiralling effect toward attitude change concerning more fundamental domestic reforms. Deliberative governance therefore has the potential to create some convergence in certain policy areas. This research contributes to the relevant European integration literature on deliberative governance and policy change by drawing on theoretical insights from the wide literature on cognitive theories. It also adds to the specialist field of studies concerning the European higher education area
European Journal of Higher Education The Bologna Process: an international higher education regime
The Bologna Process and the ensuing establishment of the European Higher Education Area has had an impact on the ways in which higher education in Europe operates, and the ways it is perceived and related to in countries and regions outside Europe. The Bologna Process has come to symbolize a form of international cooperation in higher education policy, not only in Europe, but all over the world. In this article, we discuss the Bologna Process as a system of international coordination; or, in the jargon of international relations, as a ‘regime’. The article traces the features and methods enabling the Bologna model and their diffusion outside Europe. This perspective offers a useful contribution to the understanding of the Bologna Process as constituting a foreign policy tool for the EU. Moreover, the realization that an international regime can become a player with a life of its own, with an independent influence on the international system, allows us to draw conclusions about the forces that govern the regime, and their international power.
European Journal of Higher Education
ABSTRACT As the Bologna Process reaches its twenty-year mark, reflecting on its global influence is of particular value. This special issue aims to take stock of the Bologna Process’ international function by critically examining the motivations and interests behind its ‘global strategy’ as well as scrutinising how the reform has been perceived and applied beyond Europe. The issue offers a ‘bi-directional’ perspective on the externalisation of the Bologna Process by examining both motivations behind it (with a particular focus on the EU as a leading actor) and global responses to it. This introductory article sets the stage for this discussion by unpacking the relevant literature related to the Bologna Process and its global strategy, providing both a contextual and theoretical background to the ensuing contributions. The article considers the Bologna Process through a foreign policy lens by revealing the underlying EU interests tied to the reforms, and higher education policy more broadly. Through this perspective, the article aims to launch a discussion on higher education as a foreign policy tool and the wider implications for EU policy and global higher education.
Education has always been considered an area of national sensitivity, and that for a number of reasons. These range from the obligation of the state to provide compulsory education to the role of educational institutions as nationally embedded socialising institutions. Yet, despite the tenuous nature of the legal basis that gives some substance to policy-making at European Community level, the European Commission is assuming taking on an increasing role in education, and particularly in higher education. The main vehicles for re-defining the Community's role in this domain embrace the implementation of both the Bologna process and the Lisbon Strategy. In this paper, we discuss the European policy implementation processes and how they contribute to change European higher education while enabling the creeping competence of the European Commission in higher education.
European Journal of Education, 2008
Beginning in the year 2000, higher education policies all over Europe were transformed by the launching and evolution of the Bologna Process, otherwise known as the process of creating a European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Initially, this process was flexible and informal, which makes the rapidity and scope of the changes it brought about surprising: why did European governments commit themselves to achieving the Bologna Objectives, and why so quickly, when there was no legal obligation to do so?I will argue the following: to understand the development of such a sense of obligation, we must take into account the special interests at stake when Bologna objectives are implemented at a national level. We must also consider the legitimacy lent to the process by the Bologna ideals of a knowledge-based economy and society. These elements are present in other studies on this topic. However, and this is rarely considered, we also have to take into account the specific dynamics of the process of creating an institutional coordination and monitoring mechanism. This mechanism has a formal institutional structure and tools for evaluation and monitoring. Our analysis of the way in which it was developed and formalised enriches previous research on the topic and also sheds light on how a flexible European process of voluntary participation became a monitored system of coordinated national higher education policies.
Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research
This paper addresses the puzzle of the unlikeliness of the implementation of elements of the Bologna Process agenda in Europe and post-Soviet higher education systems. Following mainstream policy science theories, the policy initiative would be qualified as "prone to failure", but surprisingly many governments took up the challenge to develop regulations and guidelines and to change the structures of their higher education systems. Looking at the adoption of Bologna process elements in various countries-east and west-I will be able to point at factors that contribute to explaining why and to what extent countries engaged with the process and hence to contribute to the literature on Europeanisation and policy adoption.