Bologna in the Western Balkans: Reconsideration on higher education reforms in the region
Bologna in the Western Balkans: Reconsideration on higher education reforms in the region

Summary/Abstract: Over the past two decades, the higher education systems of the so-called Western Balkan countries have experienced several waves of reforms. These reforms have been the result of at least two main factors: the deep political, economic and social changes after 1990 on the one hand, and the challenge of creating a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) on the other. Compared to most European countries, the Bologna reforms in the Western Balkan region have been much more demanding and difficult. The rationale for the reforms hasn’t been only modernisation and employability; on the one hand, it has been also about the purposes of higher education and the “European dimension” while, on the other hand, it has been deeply marked by politicization and privatization. In this article we would like to briefly analyse the impact of contemporary European higher education reform on developments and changes in the national higher education systems in the region. To this end, after an introduction we first discuss the changed relationship between the university and the state, then we take a closer look at the two decades of the Bologna Process, and, finally, we present some results of our recent survey on the reforms in the Western Balkans.

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