The impact of convergent higher education reforms in european countries

Abstract

The following chapter addresses a higher education reform process where the issues of comparing system characteristics and of internationality of higher education were closely intertwined. In the so-called Bologna Process, efforts have been made for more than a decade in Europe to create a similar “stage” or “cycle” structure of study programmes and degrees across Europe in order to facilitate study mobility. Observers from outside Europe often struggle to understand the emphasis placed on this theme and why such a controversial debate has been stirred up across Europe about the issues at stake. Therefore, the case of this reform might deserve attention and might turn out as an interesting case for combining a comparative view on higher education with an analysis of international mobility in higher education.