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High Educ (2015) 69:129141
DOI 10.1007/s10734-014-9765-6
Dorota Dakowska
Published online: 15 May 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
Abstract While the Europeanisation of Higher Education (HE) systems has triggered much debate, the relationship between European factors and domestic economic processes, has been less thoroughly analysed. This article analyses HE reforms in the light of two parallel processes, which have shaped this sector: the introduction of market mechanisms and a gradual Europeanisation. The Polish HE makes a good case study of the relationship between both processes as it has been shaped by the contingencies inherent to the establishment of a liberal economic regime. Another set of inputs originated from the conditionality of the EU accession process, which coincided with the launching of the Bologna Process. While the post-communist transformations entailed the large-scale privatisation of the HE system, the Bologna Process dened the role of the sector as supporting a knowledge-based economy, an agenda promoted by the Lisbon strategy and international institutions in the eld. Trying to combine the study of policy practice and narratives this article takes into account the legislative outcomes as well as the reform debates based both on economic arguments and on the necessity to catch up with Europe.
Keywords Privatisation Europeanisation HE reform Poland Bologna
Process Competitiveness
Introduction
A large number of studies dealing with Higher Education (HE) transformations focus on the Europeanisation of HE institutions (HEI) and systems (Amaral et al. 2009; Bache 2006; Dale and Robertson 2009). The case of Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) has attracted academic attention only relatively recently. While some authors
D. Dakowska (&)
University of Strasbourg, Sciences Po Strasbourg, 47 avenue de la Fort Noire, 67082 Strasbourg cedex, Francee-mail: [email protected]
Between competition imperative and Europeanisation: the case of Higher Education reform in Poland
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have found that European pressures have resulted in a growing convergence between their HE systems (Dobbins and Knill 2009; Dobbins 2011), others note no signicant Europeanisation of the system they analyse (Pabian 2009). These apparently opposed conclusions are owed to differences in the research design, in the importance given to the European variable and, last but not least, in the very denition of Europeanisation. For many authors, Europeanisation has to do with the transfer of...