The Bologna Process as a template for transnational policy coordination

Abstract

The Bologna Process (BP) presents the largest ongoing reform initiative in higher education (HE). Although it has triggered large-scale changes in HE structures in Europe, comparative analysis about its impact on other regions of the world is scarce. Using transnational communication and sociological institutionalism as a theoretical framework, this article investigates the impact of the BP on the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and the Caribbean [LAC] and (parts of) Africa. Our results demonstrate that not only the policies promoted in the realm of the BP, especially in the field of study structures, have been copied by non-European HE institutions, but also its governance modes for managing transnational HE reform initiatives. Thus, the BP can be regarded as a template for transnational HE harmonization processes in the absence of legal obligation.

Keywords:

• Bologna Process
• higher education
• diffusion
• transnational communication
• sociological institutionalism
• Asia-Pacific
• Latin America and the Caribbean
• Africa

Funding

Research on this article was financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as part of the Collaborative Research Center 597 ‘Transformations of the State’ at the University of Bremen.

Notes on contributors

Eva Maria Vögtle is a member of the research staff of the Hannover (DE) - based Deutsches Zentrum für Hochschul- und Wissenschaftsforschung (DZHW [German Centre for Higher Education and Science Research]). A visiting researcher at Collaborative Research Center ‘Transformations of the State’ at the University of Bremen.

Kerstin Martens is an associate professor of International Relations at the University of Bremen.

Notes

1. On LA: Ferrer 2010, Verger and Hermo 2010; on Asia-Pacific: Chao 2011, de Prado Yepes 2007; on USA and Australia: Robertson and Keeling 2008, Robertson 2010.

Additional information

Funding

Funding: Research on this article was financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as part of the Collaborative Research Center 597 ‘Transformations of the State’ at the University of Bremen.