Europeanisation agenda and membership in the European Higher Education Area post-2020

Setting the context

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is an international initiative for the harmonisation of higher education (HE) systems in 47 countries (down from 49 counties following the suspension of the memberships of Russia and Belarus in April 2022). While literature about the participation of the UK, Germany, France and Italy in the EHEA is diverse, limited research explores them jointly as the four founding members of the EHEA.

The originality of this project is in addressing this gap by investigating: (1) the perspectives of key HE actors in the four countries on the significance of the membership in the EHEA for them post-2020, and (2) how this informs our understanding of the implications of this on the wider politics of Europeanisation in the region. 2020 is a ‘tipping point’ for EHEA’s signatories because it was the deadline for achieving a fully-functioning EHEA. The post-2020 temporal landscape is also significant due to the impact of the pandemic, Brexit and the Russian war in Ukraine on HE.

Addressing the challenge

This project draws on theoretical ideas of differentiated Europeanisation and thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with representatives from the stakeholders in the four countries (e.g., government, national branches of international organisations affiliated with the Bologna Process), supplemented by the analysis of their official communications.

Researchers

Dr Iryna Kushnir is the PI on this project. Dr Kushnir specialises in Europeanisation and internationalisation in higher education, higher education policy, European integration, migration, social justice and post-Soviet transition. Her prior projects focused on the European Higher Education Area (Bologna Process) on the international level and the national levels of Ukraine, the UK, Germany, France and Italy, as well as the international policy-making level of the European Education Area and the relationship between European integration and the post-2015 migrant crisis. The policy mechanisms she investigated included, for example, policy learning and neo-institutional perspectives.

Dr Ruby Brooks was a Research Assistant for the UK case study, and Dr Nuve Yazgan works as a Research Associate on the other three case studies (France, Germany and Italy) project shortly. Charlotte-Rose Kennedy also assisted in supporting the write up on one related publication.

This project is funded by Spencer Foundation Small Research Grant ($50,000), and the UK case study of the project has also been partly supported by Research England through funding awarded by NTU.

Peer-reviewed articles:

Kushnir, I. and Brooks, R. (2022).UK membership(s) in the European Higher Education Area post-2020: a ‘Europeanisation’ agenda. European Educational Research Journal IF 2.517.  https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041221083073

Kushnir, I. and Eta, E., Mbah, M. and Kennedy, C. (forthcoming) In search for an agenda for sustainable development in the European Higher Education Area. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education IF 4.351

Dataset 

Kushnir, I. (2022). Interview materials: UK membership(s) in the European Higher Education Area post-2020. Nottingham Trent University Research Data Archive.

Blog article

Kushnir, I. (2022). Why does the UK continue its memberships of the European Higher Education Area post-Brexit [12 October 2022]. WonkHE https://wonkhe.com/blogs/why-does-the-uk-continue-its-memberships-of-the-european-higher-education-area-post-brexit/

Relevant conference presentations and other events (selected)

‘Europeanisation agenda and membership in the European Higher Education Area post-2020: stakeholders’ perspectives from Germany and the UK’. Research talk at the annual BERA conference (Liverpool, UK, September 2022)

‘The evolution of the meaning of “social justice” in the European Higher Education Area’. Research talk at the Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (Oslo, Norway; August 2022)

‘Europeanisation agenda and membership in the European Higher Education Area post-2020: stakeholders’ perspectives from Germany and the UK’. Research talk at the annual ECER conference (Yerevan, Armenia; August 2022)

‘Education as a front-line: an imaginary or emerging phenomenon’. Report presentation at the International Round Table ‘Education and the Education Community in the Context of War’ Ivan Franko Drohobych State Pedagogical University, Ukraine (Drohobych, Ukraine (online); May, 2022)

‘UK’s membership in the European Higher Education Area post-2020: a Europeanisation agenda’. Paper presentation at the annual ECER conference (Geneva, Switzerland (online); September, 2021)