Abstract
AbstractWhile the EHEA has achieved its goal to reduce structural barriers for student and staff mobility, the situation is different when it comes to the realization of the agreed upon promotion of basic values and principles. For example, in a number of EHEA countries the adherence of academic freedom has deteriorated since 2010. In addition, various studies have suggested a decreasing level of political commitment to Europeanisation of higher education in a growing number of countries. Achieving progress in the coming period in this key part of the EHEA’s objectives is difficult also as a result of the problems the overall process of European integration faces. For example, Brexit, the rise of anti-EU political parties and movements, and growing disagreements among EU member states on the key ideas and principles underlying European integration are posing serious challenges for Europe’s way forward in higher education collaboration. In this chapter, we will discuss a number of the challenges facing, directly or indirectly, the EHEA. We will start with a discussion of the importance of the rise of science diplomacy for the EHEA, being a consequence of the growing connection between foreign affairs and the higher education & science policy areas. Next, we will analyse the growing intra-European political tensions, with a number of EHEA countries not adhering to basic European values and principles concerning liberal democracy and open societies. Further, we will examine relevant trends in EU-funded higher education collaboration within the EHEA, with special attention for the European University Initiative. Finally, the discussions and analyses presented in the chapter lead to proposing two complementary EHEA trajectories for the coming period, the first implying a move away from the geographical focus on Europe, the second including only those countries that adhere to promoting academic freedom, institutional autonomy and other basic values and principles. Both trajectories take as a starting-point that the EHEA is in need of fundamental reforms.
Highlights
European integration in higher education entered a new era with the signing of the Bologna Declaration in 1999 (Bologna Process 1999) and its subsequent implementation, generally referred to as the Bologna Process (Maassen and Olsen 2007)
The data presented in the paper on declining political interest in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) throughout the 48 participating countries and the deterioration of the situation with respect to fundamental values, especially academic freedom, in a number of EHEA countries can be interpreted as an important challenge to the future of the EHEA
The overview of EU funded Erasmus+ (KA2) projects, and especially the first 17 alliances selected in the first European Universities Initiative (EUI) Call, shows that there are important variations between the four EHEA regions when it comes to the level of project leadership and participation
Summary
European integration in higher education entered a new era with the signing of the Bologna Declaration in 1999 (Bologna Process 1999) and its subsequent implementation, generally referred to as the Bologna Process (Maassen and Olsen 2007). While we see in these countries a growing reliance on the working of the market place and competition, and a focus on the contribution of higher education to innovation in the private sector, at the same time the promotion of open societies, democracy and intercultural competences are important elements of the higher education governance approach In these countries, the role of the state and the size and formal mandates of the public domain have been adapted but not necessarily reduced over the last decades, and the political economy can be characterised as a coordinated market economy (Hall and Soskice 2001).
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