The Europeanization of Higher Education: Markets, Politics or Learning?

This article looks at increased European co-operation in higher education, taking as its main case study the proposal for universities to adopt a common core curriculum for European studies. The article situates higher education co-operation in the context of political and economic imperatives promoting 'ever closer union' and highlights immanent dangers for academic goals. However, it also identifies the scale of European co-operation as an opportunity for national higher education actors to resist together what they may be unable to resist alone: namely, greater economic and political intrusion into academic life. Long term, this may prove crucial to the vitality of the European integration process. Copyright 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.