Your Cart

• Log in

• Related Products
• Parent
  • • Journal of the World Universities Forum
• Associated
  • • The Transformation of the Academic Profession in Malaysia
  • • Applications of the ‘GP’ Mechanical Thrombectomy Device
  • • Promoting R&D and Commercialization Efforts: Implications for Malaysia’s Higher Education Sector
  • • The Impact of the Commission of Higher Education and Government Reforms on Kenyan Universities
  • • Invitational Rhetoric as Ecofeminist Practice
  • • Women Administrators in Academia
  • • The Neoliberal Language of Higher Education in the EU
  • • Using Internet-Enabled Mobile Phones to Enhance Large Class Student Engagement
  • • Integrated Human Studies and E-Learning
  • • Universities, the Dialogue of Civilizations and the Age of Global Migrations
  • More →

The Neoliberal Language of Higher Education in the EU: An Analysis of the Bologna Process

By Florian Hummel.

Published by Journal of the World Universities Forum

The policy framework behind this piece of research is found in the developments of Europeanisation that have resulted from the joint declaration of the European Ministers of Education for one harmonised space of higher education within the European Union (Bologna Declaration). The developments are nowadays popularly described as the Bologna process. Over the years since the signing of the Bologna declaration in 1999 critical debates have developed that have been questioning the Bologna Declaration. Tomusk (2004: 75) points out that ‘quietly, without attracting too much attention from educational sociologists in Europe, a massive process has been underway […] that is expected to revolutionize European higher education to an unprecedented extend’. In this respect, this paper will discuss the underlying language of the European Union which we can find in the Bologna Declaration and its relationship to the neo-liberal ideology with its emphasis on ‘performativity’ (Lyotard 1984) by drawing on the main issues in the debate about Bologna. The paper’s research question lies in an analysis of the language of the European Union, its relationship to neo-liberal thinking and the possible meanings that neo-liberal tendencies in European policy making might have for the construction of knowledge in the member states.

Journal of the World Universities Forum, Volume 2, Issue 5, pp.53-64. Article: Print (Spiral Bound). Article: Electronic (PDF File; 1.143MB).

Dr. Florian Hummel

Director Degree Programmes, Tourism, Hospitality and Event, ANGELL Akademie Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany