Post-National Citizenship and Higher Education in the European Union

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the role of higher education institutions (HEIs) in constituting European post-national citizenships. The central argument is that the Europeanisation of rights, and the administrative regulation of higher education that follows from this, are limited as instruments for developing post-national citizenship as they reinforce and conceal social and cultural divisions. An individualist and organisational conception of citizenship is contrasted with the possibilities for a post-national citizenship enacted within HEIs considered as significant political actors within a broadly conceived European public sphere.