From the EHEA to the EEA: Renewed State-Making Ambitions in the Regional Governance of Education in Europe

Abstract

The launch of the Bologna Process in 1999 supported by the European University Association was widely seen as an ambitious intergovernmental project to reshape national higher education institutions across Europe. Over time, however, the Bologna Process framework has not only been taken up in other parts of the world, but the European Commission has incorporated it into its European Higher Education Area, and most recently the creation of a European Education Area by 2025. In our chapter we explore the framing of this expanded agenda for the European Commission for education more generally in the face of rising national populisms across European, the new challenges posed by COVID-19 and institutional lockdowns, and the geo-strategic challenges to the East with the rise of China and its Belt and Road Initiative. We note the continuing dependence in techniques of governing such as mobility and ask about the ongoing challenges facing this state-making project.