How effective is EU cooperation in higher education? This article treats the issue as one of effectiveness in policy-making. What are the policy ideas which the EU wishes to feed into a policy domain where it has to operate largely through political cooperation and a modest degree of incentive funding? What outcomes are possible? The question is…

This article draws on the discourses of educational policy in Europe to focus on the implications of the Bologna Process for higher education in Russia. The Bologna Process, as a multi-dimensional discourse involving a variety of social actors, reflects some of the complexities and contradictions of globalisation, in many local cases evoking…

In Europe, the Bologna and Copenhagen Processes in higher education (HE) and vocational education and training (VET) are on the agenda, aiming to create a European educational area. Acknowledging important differences between countries, we compare the evolving relationship between HE and VET. We ask whether and how these two distinct…

This article aims to describe how academics in England, Denmark and Portugal understand the Bologna Process, their attitudes towards the initiative, and how understandings and attitudes determine action. It shows how contextually and culturally determined academic understandings, expectations, preferences, priorities and constraints are key…

This article discusses the emergence of a European E-Learning Area (EELA) as a consequence of three factors that can be observed in the e-learning developments over the past decade. The first factor consists of the carving of a policy sector in e-learning via formal instruments such as the eLearning Programme, the Lifelong Learning Programme and…

The roads of incoming information to the US higher education system about the Bologna Process are varied and numerous. They include not only the on-line and traditional trade press, but also conferences of national organisations. Whether anyone remembers much of that information, on the other hand, is an open question, as a limited survey…

This article analyses the work of the Bologna Follow Up Group as the main institution of the Bologna Process and the perceptions of the policy actors involved concerning the character of the process in terms of its functioning in contrast to similar multi-level multi-actor European processes, its modes of communication and consensus seeking, as…

The Bologna Process is one of the major developments to have taken place in higher education in recent centuries. It has had an impact beyond European borders and repercussions in other parts of the world. Ibero-America has also sat up and taken note, even though scholars agree that there would be difficulties with its direct implementation in the…

The emergence of the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG) for Quality Assurance has been seen as an important step towards realising the European Higher Education Area by creating more transparency and accountability in the area of quality assurance. The ESG also include standards as to how quality assurance agencies should be reviewed. In a…

This article considers the current changes in Russian universities, especially moves towards a more outward-looking, international approach, driven in particular by the Bologna Process. It is noted that the speed of change has been uneven, with many institutions slow to embrace reform. The situation at the National University of Science and…

This article presents a horizontal perspective on the dynamics of governance sites currently active for the European of Knowledge and places the Bologna process in this wider European level context. It introduces two dynamics of change in political organisation: (a) institutional differentiation and specialisation and (b) the interaction between…

Since the beginning of the 20th century, integration with the Western world has been a determining driver of higher education policies, as well as many other policy areas in Turkey. Becoming a signatory country of the Bologna Process in 2001 brought a new impulse to the higher education policies in this direction. The Bologna Process reforms…

For at least two decades, politicians, academics and other stakeholders have advocated cooperation across sectors, administrative layers and other institutionalised boundaries to achieve objectives of what are called "learning regions" and the "lifelong learning perspective". Boundaries between geographical, institutional and sectors are becoming…

In 2000, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) launched the programme "Learning Regions--Providing Support for Networks'" in cooperation with the Lander. It was co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF). Some 90 regions were selected and financially supported. After one year, 71 regions continued to build-up…

Since its creation in 1958, the European Social Fund (ESF) has played a major role in supporting the development of vocational training in the Member States. However, compared to other, more recently launched, EU programmes and initiatives in the area of education and training, the ESF has not made a significant contribution to the debate about…