The Eagle and the Circle of Gold Stars: Does the Bologna Process Affect US Higher Education?

Abstract

The Bologna Process is almost at its end and European policy‐makers currently reflect on appropriate objectives and policies for the next decade. Given that the Bologna Process is generally seen as an example of unprecedented change in European higher education and that the major overarching objective of the Process was to increase the competitiveness of European higher education vis‐a‐vis the USA and Japan, it is worthwhile to investigate how and to what extent US higher education has responded to the European developments. This article analyses to what extent elements of the Bologna Process are reflected in recent US higher education policy discourse, using Tolbert and Zucker's (1996) framework of institutionalization which assumes a gradual process of the diffusion of an innovation. This analysis stresses a more uneven, piecemeal and even haphazard process, particularly in the initial stages of the institutionalization process, and suggests an adaptation of the framework.