Challenges and possibilities facing European higher education

Abstract

This article considers the extent to which economic considerations are driving European and national higher education policy. This privileging of the economic imperative can be seen quite clearly in the internationalisation of higher education agenda. The article draws attention to the impoverished language of educational and political debate, where questions about the purpose and value of higher education are never asked; there is an emphasis on method and procedure rather than on substantive questions of value. A central challenge is to find a more subtle language that that moves beyond the impoverished language of performativity and allows us to ask profound questions about the purpose and value of higher education.