Higher Education Regionalism in Europe: from Bologna Process to Sorbonne

Abstract

In 2017, the launch of Sorbonne process aimed at the creation of European Education Area by 2025 in parallel to the Bologna process existing since 1999 led to the emergence of two regional initiatives sharing mandate and membership. This study presents new empirical and conceptual insights into the ways in which a higher education regionalism can emerge and nest within another one as well as and their interplay. To this end, the paper compares the constellation of actors, competences, membership and driving forces of the two overlapping projects in higher education. It investigates plausible impact of the changes in European educational integration on Russia as a participant of the Bologna process. The results suggest that while the intergovernmental Bologna process was launched in the context of EU enlargement and embodied Pan-European vision, the EU-coordinated Sorbonne process was brought forth in the wake of multiple crises in the EU. It prioritizes the deepening of integration among a delineated group of EU members and candidates. Hence, the European regionalism in higher education is structured in concentric circles: the inner core of EU countries pursuing deeper integration and an outer circle comprising the rest of the Bologna countries, representing a geopolitical dimension for the core. The emergence of the inner core might lead to the shift in Bologna rationale towards diffusion of EU norms among countries of the outer circle. Although Russia find itself in the outer circle, there a low probability of substantial negative changes in the conditions of its participation in EU programmes, because some restrictive measures are already in force since 2014 and their expansion is unlikely due to the „selective engagement‟ in cooperation between the EU and Russia.