The Bologna Process as a policy transfer issue

Abstract

The Bologna Process (BP) – a European policy initiative to make higher education degrees compatible and comparable to one another – is presented in literature from three main perspectives: incentives to join the BP, management of the BP and the BP implementation implications. The BP transfer process is discussed in literature partially and often only implicitly, and thus, it is under elaborated. The aim of this paper is to highlight research questions essential to the BP through relevant literature review of the BP and an analytic framework which is used to suggest the questions that could be answered in further research to fill in the research gap. This paper seeks to contribute to education policy scholarship by organising existing literature about the BP around three themes, by demonstrating the gap in the analysis of the BP as a policy transfer issue, and by suggesting directions for further investigation through outlining important research questions.