The Changing Landscape of Higher Education: An Analysis of Bologna Policy and Ireland's Engagement with the Process

Abstract

In 1999 the Irish state agreed to participate voluntarily in an international policy process, more commonly known as Bologna. The process aimed to reform higher education in a ten-year period, and to establish the European Higher Education Area. Policy implementation in Bologna was facilitated through the open method of co-ordination. This mode of governance sidestepped many of the cumbersome hard law and treaty-based issues normally associated with the European Union. This article considers how Bologna utilised the open method of co-ordination, by examining the policy instruments used to facilitate lesson drawing and the sharing of best practice. The paper categorises Bologna instruments as mainly suasive, and examines policy convergence with respect to one policy instrument and one element of policy content. Ireland is identified internationally as having played a pivotal role in the development of qualification frameworks within Bologna. Qualification frameworks based on learning outcomes provided a means to progress quality and recognition action lines with Bologna. The paper moves from the supra-national policy environment to consider the national implementation of the Irish National Framework for Qualifications. This analysis reveals institutional and sectoral level issues concerning Irish universities, which are associated with policy implementation and the adoption of the learning outcomes paradigm. The paper concludes by considering challenges for the co-ordination and implementation of this policy instrument at the supra-national level and ultimately the establishment of the European Higher Education Area based on the Irish universities' experience.