20 Years of the Bologna Process in a Global Setting: the external dimension of the Bologna Process revisited

The discussion on theBolognaProcess in a global setting started formally during the preparation of the Bergen Ministerial Summit in 2005. This was six years after the official launch of the Bologna Process, a European intergovernmental cooperation in the area of higher education. The intention that the Bologna Process should also have effects outside Europe were clear already in the BolognaDeclaration (1999, 1–3)which stated among its objectives: ‘strengthening the international recognition and attractive potential of our systems’, ‘increasing the international competitiveness of the European systems of higher education’ and ‘a world-wide degree of attraction’ (Bologna Declaration 1999). This editorial reflects on the findings presented in the special issue ‘Twenty Years of the Bologna Process – reflecting on its global strategy from the perspective of motivations and external responses’ guest edited by Hannah Moscovitz and Hila Zahavi, which is a result of research collaboration within JeanMonnet Network ‘NearEU’, funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union (EU). The articles in this special issue first advance theoretical understandings of the Bologna Process as an international regime (Zahavi and Friedman 2018), its foreign policy strategy (Moscovitz and Zahavi 2018), and the effectiveness of this strategy (Asderaki 2018; Moscovitz and Zahavi 2018). This special issue applies the international relations theories to advance the conceptualization of higher education as a foreign policy tool and of the Bologna Process – the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) as a distinct international higher education regime. Furthermore, the issue addresses responses to the Bologna Process in Asia (Cabanda, Tan, and Chou 2019), Africa (Alemu 2018), Canada (King 2018), New Zealand (Shannon, Doidge, and Holland 2018) and Israel (Zahavi 2018). Many of the findings in this issue are in conversation with the most comprehensive analysis of the external dimension of the Bologna Process ‘Looking out: The Bologna Process in a Global Setting. On the “External Dimension” of the Bologna Process’, written by Pavel Zgaga on behalf of the Bologna Process working group on external dimension (Zgaga 2006). I will discuss them more after a brief recap of the basic characteristics of the Bologna Process. The Bologna Process is a decentralized but coordinated intergovernmental process of 48 European countries and the European Commission. It has a policy-network-like model of governance, which is purposefully different from the bureaucratic governance ideal in which state actors have sole authority actors (Klemenčič and Galán Palomares 2017). With input from stakeholder associations and international organizations, the Ministers and the representative of the European Commission agree on common objectives and to align their national policies and strategies (i.e. their national steering documents) to these objectives (Klemenčič 2015). This voluntary policy convergence is reinforced through several mechanisms (Klemenčič 2015). Common policy objectives are formulated as non-binding rules and voluntary commitments (drafted in Ministerial Communiques). These are then further developed into a set of recommendations for implementation (drafted in Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) workplans and other guidelines). Compliance with these recommendations is monitored through various benchmarking tools, most importantly the Bologna Process implementation reports. Communities of practice are formed through various working and advisory groups initiated under the