Intensification of Competition in European and Global Higher Education: The Role of Globalisation and Transaction Costs

Abstract

The topic of this study is the in­tens­i­fic­a­tion of com­pet­i­tion in dif­fer­ent di­men­sions of higher edu­ca­tion in the European and global space. This is ex­amined in light of glob­al­isa­tion and the con­com­it­ant re­duc­tion in trans­ac­tion costs. Changes in trans­ac­tion costs, European re­gional in­teg­ra­tion and the im­pact of glob­al­isa­tion are dis­cussed in a broader sense, and within the scope of higher edu­ca­tion. It is ar­gued that re­duc­tion in the trans­ac­tion costs is both a driv­ing force and a con­sequence of re­gional in­teg­ra­tion and glob­al­isa­tion in higher edu­ca­tion, and more spe­cific­ally, it forces both na­tional higher edu­ca­tional sys­tems and in­di­vidual higher edu­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions into a very sharp sys­tem of re­gional and global in­ter­de­pend­ence. The chal­lenges faced by less de­veloped re­gions of the European Union, i.e. the south­ern and cent­ral European peri­pher­ies, and the op­por­tun­it­ies offered in the European in­teg­ra­tion pro­cesses, have been high­lighted and the em­phas­ize is drawn upon them.