Network-Governance in European Education Policy – Actors, relations and perspectives in the Bologna-Process.

Abstract

The Bologna-Process for a European Higher Education Area has been unfolding signifi- cant impact on European Higher Education Systems. Launched as an intergovernmental initiative on the level of national ministries the process transcends national interests and has become a hybrid structure of education policy making between the nation states and the European Union. Moreover, the internationalisation of education politics embodied by the Bologna-Process has been accompanied by a reconfiguration of the political ac- tor-set. I my presentation I want to propose a structural analysis of this political process by means of network analysis. Based on a quantitative analysis of policy documents I will reflect on relevant policy actors and their relationships as well as trace the development the process has taken in its double hybrid setting between national and supranational, public and private stakeholders. In detail, two questions will be addressed: (i) Can we find a “structural Europeanisation” of higher education policy, e.g. reflected by an in— crease of European corporative actors in the Bologna—Process? And (ii) is transnational policy making a chance for democratisation (e.g. by involving formerly marginalised actors) and rationalisation of education politics? My conclusion will focus on the ambivalent nature of European higher education policy between the national “cannot” and the supranational “must not” (subsidiarity). Policy networks are functional mediators between these levels and network analysis is thus an appropriate means for European education policy research.