This article examines the Bologna Process to explore some of issues that Euroland faces in its bid to construct the European Higher Education Area. However, the author’s purpose lies elsewhere—namely, to lay bare some of the assumptions beneath the various major systems of higher education in Western Europe. The article examines some of the tensions certain assumptions have created in the ongoing saga of reconstruction, particularly those that relate to one of the basic issues in higher education: namely, the community to which the university is answerable and how it is answerable. Finally, this article examines changes between higher education and its referential community in Western Europe in terms of the Bologna Declaration. In place of the monolithic, territorially defined referential community—the nation-state—that evolved over the past 190 years or more, the power both of a superordinate community and of subnational units is growing.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Amaral, A. (2001, February 8-10). Towards accreditation schemes for higher education in Europe? Paper presented to the Validation Seminar, Universidade tecnica de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
2.
Amaral, A., & Magalhoes, A. (2001). On markets, autonomy and regulation: The Janus Head revisted. Higher Education Policy, 14, 7-20.
3.
Attali Report. (1998, July). Pour un modèle européen d’enseignement supérieur: Rapport de la commission présidée par Jacques Attali. Le Monde, pp. 6-24.
4.
Brouwer, J. (1996). De Europees Gemeenschap en Onderwijs: geschiedenis van de samenwerking en het communautaire belied op onderwijsgebied, 1951—1996. Baarn, the Netherlands: BKE.
5.
Campbell, C., & van der Wende, M. (2000). International initiatives and trends in quality assurance for European higher education: Exploratory trend report. In ENQA Occasional Papers. Helsinki, Finland: ENQA.
6.
Clark, B. R. (1983). Higher education organisation in international perspective. Berkeley: University of California Press.
7.
Cobban, A. B. (1992). Universities 1100-1500. In B. Clark & G. Neave (Eds.), Encyclopedia of higher education: Vol. 2. Analytical perspectives (pp. 1245-1250). Oxford: Pergamon.
8.
Commission of the European Communities. (2001). Document DGIV/ED/EDU/HE. Bruxelles: Directorate General IV of the Commission of the European Communities.
9.
Coombes, P., & Perkins, J. A. (1989). La reforma universitaria española: Evaluación e informe. In R. Diez-Hochleitner (Ed.), La Educación postsecundaria (pp. 9-57). Madrid, Spain: Fundación Santillana.
10.
DeWit, K., & Verhoeven, J. (2001). The higher education policy of the European Union: With or against the Member States? In J. Huisman, P. A. M. Maassen, & G. Neave (Eds.), Higher education and the nation state (pp. 175-233). Oxford: Elsevier-Pergamon for IAU.
11.
Enders, J. (Ed.). (2001). Academic staff in Europe: Changing contexts and conditions. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
12.
EUA (European Universities’ Association). (2002). The Bologna Declaration on the European space for education: An explanation. Geneva, Switzerland: Author.
13.
Garcia Garrido, J.-L. (1998). Spain. In T. Postlethewait, T. Neville Clark, R. Burton, & G. R. Neave (Eds.), The complete encyclopedia of education (CD-ROM). Oxford: Elsevier Science.
14.
Geiger, R. L. (1986). Private sectors in higher education: Structure, function and change in eight countries. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
15.
Jacques, G. (1990). The re-awakening of French higher education. European Journal of Education, 25, 123-146.
16.
Haug, G. (1999, April). Towards a coherent European higher education space. Paper presented at the Conference des Recteurs Européens, Geneva, Switzerland.
17.
Huisman, J., Maassen, P. A. M., & Neave, G. (2001). Higher education and the nation state. Oxford: Elsevier for IAU Press.
18.
IRDAC (1994). Quality and relevance: The challenge to European education. Bruxelles, Belgium: Author.
19.
Kalvermark, T., & van der Wende, M. (1997). National policies for internationalisation of higher education in Europe. Hogskolverket Studies, 8S, 259-271.
20.
Lane, J.-E. (1992). Sweden. In B. Clark & G. Neave (Eds.), Encyclopedia of higher education: Vol. 1. National systems (pp. 687-697). Oxford: Pergamon.
21.
Neave, G. (1984). The EEC and education. Stoke-on-Trent, UK: Trentham Books.
22.
Neave, G. (1987). La Communidad Europea y la Educación. Madrid, Spain: Fundación Universidad Empresa.
23.
Neave, G. (1998, September). Quatre modèles pour l’Université. Courrier de l’UNESCO, 33(3), 7-25.
24.
Neave, G. (2000). Abiding issues, changing perspectives: Visions of the university across a half century. Paris: IAU Press.
25.
Neave, G. (2001a, September 10-13). Anything goes: Or, how the accommodation of Europe’s universities to European integration integrates a surprising number of contradictions. Opening address to the Annual Meeting of the European Association for Institutional Research, Porto, Portugal.
26.
Neave, G. (2001b). The European dimension in higher education: An excursion into the modern use of historical analogues. In J. Huisman, P. A. M. Maassen, & G. Neave (Eds.), Higher education and the nation state (pp. 13-73). Oxford: Elsevier Pergamon.
27.
Neave, G., & Rhoades, G. (1987). The academic estate in Western Europe. In B. R. Clark (Ed.), The academic profession: National, disciplinary & institutional settings (pp. 211-270). Berkeley: University of California Press.
28.
Neave, G., & van Vught, F. A. (1994). Government and higher education relationships across three continents: The winds of change. Oxford: Pergamon.
29.
Osborn, R. (2001). Higher education, participation and devolution: The case of Northern Ireland. Higher Education Policy, 14, 45-60.
30.
Premfors, R. (1985). Analysis in politics: The regionalisation of Swedish higher education. Comparative Education Review, 28, 85-104.
31.
Rosovsky, H. (2001). Governance, change and the universities in Western Europe. In W. Hirsch & L. Weber (Eds.), Governance in higher education: The university in a state of flux (pp. 52-73). London: Economica.
32.
Teichler, U. (1985). Germany. In B. R. Clark (Ed.), From school to university: International perspectives (pp. 45-76). Berkeley: University of California Press.
33.
Teichler, U. (1998). The changing roles of university and non-university setors of higher education in Europe. European Review, 6, 475-487.
34.
Teichler, U., & Kehm, B. (1998). Germany. In B. Clark, T. Husten, N. Postlethwaite, & G. Neave (Eds.), The complete encyclopedia of education [CD-ROM]. Oxford: Elsevier.
35.
van der Wende, M. (2000). The Bologna Declaration: Employability, transparency and competitiveness for European higher education. Higher Education in Europe, 25, 305-310.
36.
van Heffen, O., Verhoeven, J., & de Wit, K. (1999). Higher education policies and institutional response in Flanders: Instrumental analysis and cultural theory. In B. Jongbloed, P. A. M. Maaassen, & G. Neave (Eds.), From the eye of the storm: Higher education’s changing institution (pp. 263-292). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
37.
Westerheijden, D. (2001). Ex oriente lux: National and multiple accreditation in Europe after the fall of the Wall and after Bologna. Quality in Higher Education, 7, 65-75.
