Boomerangs and Trojan Horses: The Unintended Consequences of Internationalising Education Policy Through the EU and the OECD

Abstract

During the last few years, the EU and the OECD have become increasingly involved in the field of education policy. Both international organisations have been approached by national governments in this issue area and have triggered and shaped domestic debates about the reform of national education systems. In this contribution, we look at the two most prominent among these initiatives: the ‘Bologna process’, which is by now commonly associated with the EU and involves the standardisation of degree structures in higher education with the goal of creating a single European Higher Education Area (EHEA), and the OECD’s ‘Program for International Student Assessment’ (PISA), which regularly evaluates the performance of school students in different national education systems. Both processes stimulated extensive public debates and compelled policy makers to restructure their national education systems.