The European Round Table of Industrialists and the restructuring of European higher education

Abstract

The restructuring of European higher education (EHE) since the 1980s is a widely studied subject. However, this paper argues that previous studies have paid insufficient attention to the role of transnational policy-making groups in this complex and multilevel process. This argument is supported by focusing on how the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT) has participated in this restructuring since the mid-1980s. This paper's focus is especially in two ERT documents that were published in the 1980s. The main finding is that the current restructuring of EHE reflects interests of the ERT that represents the emerging transnational capitalist class (TCC) at European level.