To what extent does transnational communication drive cross-national policy convergence? The impact of the bologna-process on domestic higher education policies

Abstract

This study investigates if transnational communication in the context of the Bologna Process (BP) has led to the convergence of higher education (HE) policies. The country sample includes both Bologna participants and non-participants, for which systematic knowledge about the implications of the BP is absent so far. We investigate study structures and quality assurance measures, which differ in their suitability for transnational benchmarking activities and are explicitly addressed by the BP. Our results show that convergent effects differ across policy dimensions and according to the subsamples. We generally find that convergence is greater for the participant countries than for the control group. However, convergence towards the HE policies of Bologna participants is detectable in the control group, albeit to a lesser degree. Thus, some HE policies have diffused beyond the members of the BP. This lends evidence that transnational communication can induce policy change even for countries not participating in the respective harmonization process.