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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue on “Employability of higher education graduates in europe” from the perspective of global changes. Design/methodology/approach – The empirically based papers of the special issue address six main areas related to the transition of graduates from education to the labour market: employment and employability, job (mis)match, development of particular areas of competency, new certificates of higher education, along with the disciplinarity and status of the self-perceived role of academics in supporting graduates’ careers. Findings – This issue provides empirical findings relevant to various stakeholders of higher education systems which are essential for strategic development in the area. Originality/value – The selection of papers proposes an interdisciplinary scientific approach in the areas of bridging (higher) education with the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The project of the Bologna process to create a 'European Higher Education Area' (EHEA) has established the necessary conditions for the emergence of a new sociopolitical space of higher education in Europe. This space has become a cooperation/competition area that changes the European and national balance of power: the relations the countries maintain both between them and with the European Commission are situated in a cooperation/competition game. The European Commission plays a central role in this area, alongside actor organisations who see themselves forced to discuss issues that had previously divided them and to modify their relationships at a national level. This article can be seen as a contribution to the analysis of international strategy in a global knowledge economy, especially to the two-level game theory of Putnam for which international agreements are negotiated with success only if they lead to national advantages. In particular, it studies the role of the European Commission in this sociopolitical area and the mechanism by which it has taken the piloting of the Bologna process, which was launched in a field of national competency, to make it an instrument for the realisation of the Lisbon strategy aimed at making the European Union the most competitive economy in the world. This paper is based on data sources provided by the analysis of papers produced by the actors of the process and on 50 interviews of these actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades regional agreements have become more significant in educational and training. This paper situates and analyses the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the Bologna Process and the Lisbon Strategy and explores their influence on the integration of higher education systems in Mercosur (the Southern Common Market of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela). Mercosur is still a customs union, and the project of integrating higher education is at an early stage. Lacking organically established regional bodies, coordination of integration in Mercosur has focused on summits and meetings of officials. However, in a context of unequal maturity in regional integration, there is emerging evidence that the EHEA project is influencing the reforms of national systems of higher education and even Mercosur’s model for a regional area of higher education. A nascent Europeanization of higher education systems in the Mercosur region is emerging, by-passing Mercosur’s regional structures. The formulation of policies has been permeated by policy transfer from Europe to national territories within Mercosur. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Designing political institutions is a balancing act between upholding democratic ideals and accommodating constraints. Advocates of deliberative governance in the European Union live this tension in a particularly polarized manner, torn between the deliberative ideal of consensual decision-making and the reality of power politics. To which extent does deliberative governance provide a suitable conceptual framework as well as a mode of governance in its own right for European policy-making? This paper applies five features of deliberative governance suggested by Teague (2001) in his study of European social policy to the genesis of the Bologna Process and subsequent domestic reforms. The Bologna Process has, since the Sorbonne declaration of 25 May 1998, aimed at creating a European Higher Education Area. This study concludes that deliberative governance has the potential to start a long-term process of progressive domestic policy change and therefore deserves further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

European higher education has experienced substantial changes as a result of the ongoing implementation of the Bologna Process. Twenty nine (29) European countries signed the Bologna Declaration in 1999 committing themselves to transform, through cooperation, an archaic and separated assortment of higher education institutions. In 2010, the participant countries, which had increased to forty seven (47), evaluated the progress made and set up a new agenda for the next decade. This paper outlines the ambitious objectives of the Bologna Process; analyzes the challenges faced and the significant changes that have taken place in the European Higher Education Area. The possible impact on higher education around the world is considered. The analysis is based on a review of the literature and selected documents published by key stakeholders in the process of transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on data from six European countries (Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Poland and Spain) to explore the higher education timescapes inhabited by students. Despite arguments that degree-level study has become increasingly similar across Europe – because of global pressures and also specific initiatives such as the Bologna Process and the creation of a European Higher Education Area – it shows how such timescapes differed in important ways, largely by nation. These differences are then explained in terms of: the distinctive traditions of higher education still evident across the continent; the particular mechanisms through which degrees are funded; and the nature of recent national-level policy activity. The analysis thus speaks to debates about Europeanisation, as well as how we theorise the relationship between time and place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses two processes of higher education regionalisation, MERCOSUR-Educativo in Latin America and the Bologna Process in Europe, from a comparative perspective. The comparative analysis is centered on the content and the governance of both processes and, specifically, on the reasons of their uneven evolution and implementation. We support the comparison by using theories of governance and globalisation/regionalisation. We also focus on the external and non-educational influences affecting MERCOSUR-Educativo and the Bologna Process. In this respect, we conclude that, despite the regional scope of the two processes analysed, both are directly and indirectly affected by economic globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of a tiered structure of study programmes and degrees is a core aspect of the Bologna Process. Based on recent empirical studies on the implementation of bachelor and master programmes in a number of European countries, an assessment is made of whether the Bologna Process has progressed in this area. However, given the multitude of expectations and different national reform contexts, it is argued that the impacts of measures taken in the framework of the Bologna Process are difficult to assess. Hence, in the conclusion the article points to a number of unsolved problems still existing to achieve the objectives of the Bologna Process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]