Universities and the Europe of Knowledge

University Autonomy, Agenda Setting and the Construction of Agency: The Case of the European University Association in the European Higher Education Area

“…Similarly, the analysis includes the Council of the European Union documents (EC, 2003(EC, , 2005(EC, , 2006(EC, , 2011Council of the European Union 2007, as well as communiqués of the ministerial meetings produced as part of the Bologna Process (Bologna Process, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2012. While the EUA documents and the Bologna ministerial communiqués represent a complete sample, the European Union documents are limited to a set of recent documents which explicitly mention autonomy.…”

“…This type of discourse can obscure the fact that what is perceived as the 'Bologna Process' is, in fact, an arena in which the ideas and agendas of different actors meet, interact and clash, and thus engage in a struggle for 'monopoly' over meaning-making (e.g. Wright, 1998;Corbett, 2005). This perspective leads to the necessity to consider in more depth the role of different actors, as well as the role of agency, in the transformation of European higher education.…”

The legal impact of Bologna implementation: exploring criticisms and critiques of the Bologna process

“…Other secondary material referred to includes: Reinalda & Kulesza (2006), Corbett (2005), and Greatrix (2005). It is arguable that the BP is part of the generally over-bureaucratic and very costly context of EU continent-wide activity, except one that (perhaps depressingly) involves a much larger range of nations than those which are formally members of the EU.…”

“…• If it is really about creating an EHEA to serve the human capital needs of the EU and beyond (Corbett, 2005), again it has failed for we are well short of implementing BP objectives across the EU nations and their share of the BP's 4000 HEIs.…”

“…Corbett (2005) offers up the terrible prospect of BP 'soft' law becoming EU 'hard' law by tracing the history of EU policy-making in the HE policy sector since the 1950s (recurring 'EU aspirations for a Europe of Knowledge'): the rich diversity of European universities is harmonised down to the dullness of the McDonald 'EU-Uni', perhaps along with the creation of the 'Eurosausage' or 'Euro-beer'! Thus, Corbett chronicles increased, and everincreasing, intervention of the EU Commission in the BP, and not least via the development of the ENQA (see Greatrix as referred to above).…”