IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijpubp/v12y2016i1-2p54-70.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Governing in the shadow of Bologna: return of the state in higher education quality assurance policy

Author

Listed:
  • Anu Toots
  • Leif Kalev

Abstract

The Bologna process emerged as a voluntary network of higher education systems, but within a few years it has gradually transformed into a new form of governance closely linked to the EU. This implies the return of executive power, though by using new tools and arenas. The article aims to analyse to which extent this shift in governing in the Bologna process is evident in higher education of Estonia. The analysis revealed similar developments in higher education quality assurance at both European and domestic levels, characterised by strengthening of executive agencies which govern by data and quality standards. Semi-structured interviews demonstrated that executive actors are better adjusted to the new situation of governance compared to legislative actors. While members of parliament and interest group representatives commonly failed to distinguish between the Bologna process and the EU Lisbon agenda, executive actors efficiently used the European agenda to advance domestic quality assurance reforms. Moreover, in contrast with parliamentary representatives, civil servants understood the need to reconfigure existing policy networks that may eventually further strengthen the position of executives in higher education policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Anu Toots & Leif Kalev, 2016. "Governing in the shadow of Bologna: return of the state in higher education quality assurance policy," International Journal of Public Policy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 12(1/2), pages 54-70.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijpubp:v:12:y:2016:i:1/2:p:54-70
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=75216
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Radaelli, Claudio M., 2004. "Europeanisation: Solution or problem?," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 8, October.
    2. Johan P. Olsen, 2002. "The Many Faces of Europeanization," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(5), pages 921-952, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Loogma, Krista, 2016. "Europeanization in VET Policy as a Process of Reshaping the Educational Space," International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET), European Research Network in Vocational Education and Training (VETNET), European Educational Research Association, vol. 3(1), pages 16-28.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kristine Kern & Harriet Bulkeley, 2009. "Cities, Europeanization and Multi‐level Governance: Governing Climate Change through Transnational Municipal Networks," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 309-332, March.
    2. Miloš Večeřa, 2012. "The process of Europeanization of law in the context of Czech law," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 60(2), pages 459-464.
    3. Georgios Maris & Floros Flouros, 2021. "The Green Deal, National Energy and Climate Plans in Europe: Member States’ Compliance and Strategies," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-17, July.
    4. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:48:y:2010:i::p:787-810 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Elena-Alexandra GORGOS & Elena-Mădălina VĂTĂMĂNESCU & Andreia Gabriela ANDREI, 2016. "Europeanization through students’ lens: EU versus EaP citizens. Is there a collective identity?," Eastern Journal of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 7, pages 185-206, December.
    6. Trine Flockhart, 2010. "Europeanization or EU‐ization? The Transfer of European Norms across Time and Space," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(4), pages 787-810, September.
    7. Angelos Chryssogelos, 2017. "Still Europeanised? Greek Foreign Policy During the Eurozone Crisis," GreeSE – Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe 118, Hellenic Observatory, LSE.
    8. Amashukeli Mariam & Lezhava Diana & Chitashvili Marine, 2020. "“Conditioned” Quality Assurance of Higher Education in Georgia: Talking the EU Talk," Baltic Journal of European Studies, Sciendo, vol. 10(2), pages 75-95, September.
    9. Sophie Jacquot & Cornelia Woll, 2003. "Usage of European Integration - Europeanisation from a Sociological Perspective," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-01019642, HAL.
    10. Tanja A. Börzel, 2010. "The Transformative Power of Europe Reloaded - The Limits of External Europeanization," KFG Working Papers p0011, Free University Berlin.
    11. Rune Dahl Fitjar & Einar Leknes & Janne Thygesen, 2013. "Europeanisation of Regional Policy Making: A Boolean Analysis of Norwegian Counties' Participation in the Eu's Interreg Programme," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 31(3), pages 381-400, June.
    12. Tomasz Grzegorz Grosse, 2011. "Low Carbon Economic Policy In Poland: An Example Of The Impact Of Europeanization," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 6(1), pages 9-39, March.
    13. Fabio Sozzi, 2013. "National Parties, Political Processes and the EU democratic deficit: The Problem of Europarties Institutionalization," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 4, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    14. Chryssogelos, Angelos, 2017. "Still Europeanised? Greek Foreign Policy During the Eurozone Crisis," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 85925, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Maas, W.M., 2008. "Fleeing to Europe," ISS Working Papers - General Series 18740, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    16. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:47:y:2009:i::p:1-24 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Richard Perkins & Eric Neumayer, 2007. "Implementing Multilateral Environmental Agreements: An Analysis of EU Directives," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 7(3), pages 13-41, August.
    18. Marella Bodur Ün & Harun Arıkan, 2022. "Europeanization and De‐Europeanization of Turkey's Gender Equality Policy: The Case of the Istanbul Convention," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 945-962, July.
    19. Isik Özel, 2013. "Regional Blocs, Transnational Actors and Interest Mediation: The Cases of Mexico and Turkey," KFG Working Papers p0053, Free University Berlin.
    20. Cornelia Woll & Sophie Jacquot, 2010. "Using Europe: Strategic Action in Multi-Level Politics," Post-Print hal-01023857, HAL.
    21. Martin Stangborli Time & Frode Veggeland, 2020. "Adapting to a Global Health Challenge: Managing Antimicrobial Resistance in the Nordics," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 53-64.
    22. Dorian Aliu & Ayten Akatay & Armando Aliu & Umut Eroglu, 2017. "Public Policy Influences on Academia in the European Union," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(1), pages 21582440176, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijpubp:v:12:y:2016:i:1/2:p:54-70. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=97 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.