Asia/Europe Inter-university Cooperation in Higher Education: The case of Tuning Central Asian Higher Education Area (TuCAHEA)

Abstract

The purpose of the current paper is to share the preliminary findings of the working doctoral dissertation titled “Asia/Europe inter-university cooperation in higher education: The case of Tuning Central Asian Higher Education Area (TuCAHEA)". The dissertation is a qualitative case study of an EU-funded consortium of European and Central Asian universities, aimed at building Central Asia Higher Education Area. Preliminary findings suggest that the Tuning initiative helps to promote a competency-based approach as an international norm in higher education policy through the dissemination of causal beliefs. As an epistemic community, the Tuning initiative contributes to the European norm diffusion outside the Bologna process. Tuning helps to re-construct European discourse in higher education policy in Central Asia. Furthermore, the initiative promotes the Tuning framework as a policy instrument of regional harmonization of higher education programs. The study contributes to the understanding of the normative power of the European Union and international higher education policy diffusion in the Central Asian context.